‘No protest at this time’ from Ireland after British women’s hockey team puts 12 players on pitch – Irish Times

Contrary to claims by professional British hockey media on Sunday, Ireland will still play after 12 players were briefly on the pitch for the Great Britain women’s team’s third-place match at the Olympic qualifying tournament in Valencia, Spain. No formal protest has been filed. Saturday.

Irish hockey remains of the opinion that “this mistake did not have a material impact on the final result”, with Great Britain winning 2-1, ending Ireland’s hopes of making it to Paris this summer. However, despite such views, and despite the fact that according to the rules of the International Hockey Federation, there is no clear means of filing a protest at this stage, Irish Hockey still excludes any attempt to file a protest. I haven’t.

“There are no protests at this time as we are still in discussions with the FIH.” [International Hockey Federation]” a spokesperson said on Monday when asked about the situation. “The focus is still on understanding what happened, how it happened, what could have been done to avoid it, etc.”

When asked to clarify whether “there are no protests at this time” and whether that meant a protest could still be filed, the decision was made by “head coaches and good managers, where they “It will depend on how we go and talk to the FIH.” go”.

FIH told The Hockey on Monday that UK added an outfield player “for 50 seconds within the final two minutes of the third quarter,” according to FIH calculations. “This followed several substitutions, which unfortunately went unnoticed by both the team and technical personnel.”

No goals were scored during this 50 seconds, and Great Britain did not benefit from the infraction, but Ireland may argue that having too many British players on the pitch does little to aid their efforts to score at the other end.

But the rules are clear enough. “If there are more players on the field than allowed for a team, time should stop to correct the situation. A personal penalty may be imposed against the captain of the team involved if this does not seriously affect the team involved.” It does not matter whether the match is replayed or the result is overturned.

In a statement to Hockey, the FIH apologized for the incident and said an investigation was underway, adding: “In accordance with competition rules, incidents in matches such as this cannot be protested or appealed.”

There is precedent here, including England’s loss to Argentina in the bronze medal match at the 2014 Men’s World Cup. Argentina had 12 players on the pitch for more than two minutes, but the FIH dismissed England’s protest as the violation was “unintentional”, sealing Argentina’s 2-0 victory. Argentina’s only sanction was a one-match suspension for their captain.

Whatever frustration Ireland may have had with the 12-man 50-second match, it is highly unlikely that it will be resolved.

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