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Back posting after spending the last two weeks at the Arctic Winter Games. For those that don't know, the Arctic Winter Games are an international competition between the various regions of the Arctic including Alaska, Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Northern Alberta (basically Fort McMurray and Grande Prarie), Nunavik (Northern Quebec, basically the part that really doesn't want to be independent), Kalaallit Nunaat or Greenland to most of us, and the Sapmi (the indigenous people of Northern Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia). There's also the Yamal region of Russia but they weren't invited for obvious reasons. There's a bunch or sports that are played: The usual suspects like hockey, basketball, volleyball, curling. Arctic sports and Dene games like the one-foot and two-foot high kicks and others. There's some outdoor stuff like cross-country skiing, biathlon, and even snowshoeing. My particular sport was Futsal, a form of indoor soccer (until 2014 they actually played indoor soccer with boards and all but switched to Futsal in 2016).
Since this years games were in Alaska and near Anchorage in the Mat-Su Valley (Palmer and Wasilla), I got named as Head Official for Futsal way back in October. Prep for the games went mostly well, had to coordinate the referees from Alaska and from Canada. Thankfully I worked the last games and knew all of the Canadian people already. Had to set up the venue, one of the high schools, while coordinating with the sport chairs (two soccer coaches at the school). Of course no gym up here has markings for futsal so I spent 3+ hours measuring and taping off the court before the games, thankfully with help.
The week of the games ended up being one of the most stressful weeks of my life. The tournament rules were written and finalized well before the games and I came on as Head Official. And they were worthless, just had some vague timing stuff (running clock but there's stoppages?), group stage tiebreakers, and that's it, nothing about suspensions, protests or anything. So, first red card of the tournament comes out and all heck breaks loose. First off, the kid ejected ran back onto the field and interfered with play so the other team ended up protesting. I'm trying to recommend suspensions for the player and the coach (for failing to control his bench) while dealing with a protest. It all ends up going to a separate jury who decide to suspend the kid two games and uphold the result. The kid's team protests the suspension, and 15 minutes before their next game, his suspension is overturned. Except, word didn't get to us until the game had started and his team is trying to insert him near halftime. This led to a big argument because he wasn't on the roster for the match and the Futsal laws do not allow roster changes once the match starts. Thankfully, I was the referee on that match and ended it pretty forcefully with a stern "he's not playing, get him off the bench NOW!" and yellow card to the coach.
So why did the suspension get overturned? Well, there's nothing in the tournament rules listing suspensions for red cards so there's no suspensions for red cards the entire tournament. This puts my referees (and myself honestly) on the edge of revolt. The only way everything goes forward is a) we only had one more red card the entire tournament (issued ironically by me) but in Gold Medal Game so suspension was a null point by then and b) I had meeting with members of the Arctic Winter Game International Committee (think like the IOC) who were actually pretty receptive and apologetic to my concerns and invited myself and some other senior referees to basically rewrite the tournament rules going forward (we have a meeting next month).
This was after the medical complained about the number of injuries that occurred in the first 2-3 days, most of which were either non-contact injuries or the result of some unfortunate situations and the hardwood floor or wall.
Thankfully, hockey came through in the clutch with a 5 ejection gold medal game (unsurprisingly involving Alaska) and a couple of rowdy parents (surprisingly not Alaskan) having to be escorted out of the building by police that took some of the heat and attention away from us. Plus Nunavut won medals for the first time ever in Futsal so that helped.
I took this week off of work as well and spent the last 3 days just resting.
Since this years games were in Alaska and near Anchorage in the Mat-Su Valley (Palmer and Wasilla), I got named as Head Official for Futsal way back in October. Prep for the games went mostly well, had to coordinate the referees from Alaska and from Canada. Thankfully I worked the last games and knew all of the Canadian people already. Had to set up the venue, one of the high schools, while coordinating with the sport chairs (two soccer coaches at the school). Of course no gym up here has markings for futsal so I spent 3+ hours measuring and taping off the court before the games, thankfully with help.
The week of the games ended up being one of the most stressful weeks of my life. The tournament rules were written and finalized well before the games and I came on as Head Official. And they were worthless, just had some vague timing stuff (running clock but there's stoppages?), group stage tiebreakers, and that's it, nothing about suspensions, protests or anything. So, first red card of the tournament comes out and all heck breaks loose. First off, the kid ejected ran back onto the field and interfered with play so the other team ended up protesting. I'm trying to recommend suspensions for the player and the coach (for failing to control his bench) while dealing with a protest. It all ends up going to a separate jury who decide to suspend the kid two games and uphold the result. The kid's team protests the suspension, and 15 minutes before their next game, his suspension is overturned. Except, word didn't get to us until the game had started and his team is trying to insert him near halftime. This led to a big argument because he wasn't on the roster for the match and the Futsal laws do not allow roster changes once the match starts. Thankfully, I was the referee on that match and ended it pretty forcefully with a stern "he's not playing, get him off the bench NOW!" and yellow card to the coach.
So why did the suspension get overturned? Well, there's nothing in the tournament rules listing suspensions for red cards so there's no suspensions for red cards the entire tournament. This puts my referees (and myself honestly) on the edge of revolt. The only way everything goes forward is a) we only had one more red card the entire tournament (issued ironically by me) but in Gold Medal Game so suspension was a null point by then and b) I had meeting with members of the Arctic Winter Game International Committee (think like the IOC) who were actually pretty receptive and apologetic to my concerns and invited myself and some other senior referees to basically rewrite the tournament rules going forward (we have a meeting next month).
This was after the medical complained about the number of injuries that occurred in the first 2-3 days, most of which were either non-contact injuries or the result of some unfortunate situations and the hardwood floor or wall.
Thankfully, hockey came through in the clutch with a 5 ejection gold medal game (unsurprisingly involving Alaska) and a couple of rowdy parents (surprisingly not Alaskan) having to be escorted out of the building by police that took some of the heat and attention away from us. Plus Nunavut won medals for the first time ever in Futsal so that helped.
I took this week off of work as well and spent the last 3 days just resting.
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