Question Number: 16826

Law 4 - Players Equipment 9/22/2007

RE: ALL High School

Franco of Bloomington, USA asks...

This question is a follow up to question 16798

I have read quick blurbs about this, and I have looked at retailers and have yet to see any rating, labeling, approval, stamp or anything that lets the consumer know how safe the protection is.

I also think that saying the appropriate size is also misleading because thats left up to interpretation. Manufacturers don't agree on size. I think the rating will be a plus once it happens. Shinguards are there for than just prevent bruised and dinged up shins, they can help prevent leg fractures and there is scientific data to support that.

I feel like to enforce this is to punish the player and team. If a player plays with inappropriate equipment in a game then he or she should be red carded and the team plays down. Playing down bothers coaches more than forcing them to leave the game. Some coaches seem to brag about being forced to leave a game, but they hate the thought of their team playing down. Unfortunately high school has an attitude about teams playing down.

If its discovered before the game then that player cannot come into the game until the equipment is verified. Before the game I put the blame on the player and the coach.

Franco

Answer provided by Referee Chuck Fleischer

This is a power struggle between NFHS and the manufacturers of shinguards. I hope the manufacturers do not affix the label or printing to their products. I hope this causes every high school player in the country to realize how inane their "rule" just happens to be. I do not understand why a shinguard that may be used in every country in the world may not be used in the Unites States just because it doesn't have printing on it.

I can't understand why it lays to the referee to caution a coach who doesn't know how to dress his players. I can't understand why the referee must give lectures on sportsmanship to coaches at high school and college matches. I can't understand why there are, at least, three sets of Laws/rules governing football in America.

I am just too stupid to fathom that each little fiefdom must justify its existence by doing something. Shinguards were required by FIFA to stop the spread of communicable disease. They are there for the protection of the player, wear them or don't play. It matters not if they are approved by an act of congress or offered for sale at a hardware store.

NFHS has put in writing what it wants its referees to do. Do it their way or referee in another league that doesn't use NFHS rules.

Regards,

Answer provided by Referee Michelle Maloney

And what would be your justification for red-carding a player with equipment that you, one referee alone, judge as unsafe? Under which of the NFHS rules or the worldwide Laws of the Game? I submit that is a sledgehammer solution to a thumbtack problem.

The following questions were asked as a follow up to the above question...

See Question: 16942