OPINION: FOOT RULE CHANGE HAS A MODEL IN THE UNITED STATES

By Al Mattei

Founder, TopOfTheCircle.com

The Federational Internationale de Hockeé (FIH) has unleashed a swarm of controversy in the summer of 1999 with the decision to tamper with one of field hockey's fundamental rules: you can't play the ball with your feet.

The change was coined in a small phrase, punctuated with two important words which carried supreme import: sort of like the way "indisputable visual evidence" came to be synonymous with American football's experiment with instant replay officiating.

These words are "unintentional" and "insignificant." These are the kinds of foot contacts which have been written into the existing rules, which allow play to continue if an offending team did not receive an advantage from a ball played off its player's foot.

The umpiring crew at the 1999 Champions' Trophy in Brisbane, Australia have had a tough time dealing with the new rule change. Entire teams have surrounded umpires after goals were scored after tough no-calls which have usually been whistled down.

Some have seen this rule as signaling a downward spiral of skill in the sport. Others see it as a fundamental change in the game.

However, there is at least one area of the United States where unintentional and insignificant contact with the feet while playing with the ball is routinely allowed: Pennsylvania.

In the state of Pennsylvania, where many of the country's best prospects now come from, the game of field hockey is radically different from neighboring states. The contests are much faster-paced; the ball is hit harder.

Adding to this is a much less conservative style of umpiring in some sections of the state. The officials have, for much of the past 15 years, called a somewhat looser game allowing the game to flow without so many whistles stopping play.

In Pennsylvania, the act of a ball contacting a foot is not enough to bring out a whistle. Go across the river to New Jersey -- another field hockey hotbed -- and you often find that if a ball hits an opponent's foot, the play is whistled down, no matter whether the deflection is significant or insignificant. Too, the word "Foot!" is heard more often in some American scholastic games rather than the cheering of fans or the chatter of teammates communicating with each other.

However, we have seen many scholastic field hockey games in Pennsylvania turn on the lack of a call in this fine point of the rules. Sometimes, you can argue that teenagers in the state are already learning the new, experimental interpretation of FIH rules.

But from the descriptions of play at the 1999 Champions' Trophy, the interpretation of the phrase "unintentional and insignificant" has gone way, way out of kilter. From the descriptions which have been written about the umpiring decisions in the 1999 Champions Trophy matches, the sport seems to have developed the characteristics of shinty or ice hockey, where the use of the feet is not penalized by loss of possession.

But fortunately for true field hockey fans, it seems as though the 1999 Champions' Trophy experiment is going to remain that -- an experiment. FIH president Juan Angel Calzado, in remarks made shortly before the men's and women's finals were set, admitted that the rule needed some correction.

"Due notice of the situation has been taken," he said, "And further clarification and explanation will be provided in co-operation with the Hockey Rules Board - to obtain an effective and happy balance between the two extremes with the best interests of the athletes and the sport in mind."

The extremes, to Calzado and the FIH, are games with many fouls and little flow, contrated with contests in which the attack suffers and the skill level drops.

But then again, isn't that the same tension which is played out on both sides of the Delaware River between the states of New Jersey and Pennsylvania every year?

What do you think? Email us at topofthecircle@aol.com, and we'll try to print a random sampling of your opinions, as long as you are willing to give us your name and where you are from.