Date:
The
Executive Committee has decided to release this document concerning the World
Championship held in
The World Championship was awaited to be the greatest
tournament in the world ever because the Russian organizers introduced a few
news for the Championship. A really big and nice venue (ice-skating stadium),
prize money and advertising the tournament in the streets of
The fact is that it was the most notable tournament in
the history of table hockey. The organizers prepared the great venue and
everything around the tournament really nice. But they did not avoid some
mistakes and problems. The Executive Committee hopes that the organizers know
about the problems now and they would change a few things if organizing the
tournament once again.
The
problems which happened in
The main
tasks for the Technical Commission at the next World / European Championships:
-
prepare
and manage the seeding process at the tournament;
-
chose and introduce all members of the Referee
Committee for the tournament. All participants of the tournament should know
and see the members of the Referee Committee;
-
prepare
and manage the time schedule of the tournament according to the known /
estimated number of participants;
-
check the software which is planned to be used for
keeping the results during the tournament.
The reason for releasing this document is not the
review of the World Championship. The reason is to solve the violation of the
valid rules which was made during the World Championship. Two main problems
were:
1)
Dmitry Soloviev standing inside the playing
zone during play-off matches although he had no right to be there. He also
seriously threatened Petter Bengtsson without any relevant reason.
2)
The organizers were not following the valid
rule 3.4 from the Tournament Rules document:
"... The organizers must ensure that no participant will be
bothered during the tournament by other players, or by the audience. Players
can ask for sufficient free space around them and around the table especially
during the play-off matches. The organizers must ensure that the audience will
not disturb the players in any way, including loud talking or yelling.
..."
Dmitry Soloviev
as a member of the Referee Committee at the World Championship 2007 broke the
rule announced by the organizers. It was announced that nobody but the players
and the score keeper is allowed to enter the playing zones with obvious
borders. The only exception could be the referee IF HE IS CALLED BY THE PLAYERS
to decide the match officially. In addition Dmitry Soloviev used not acceptable
behaviour towards Petter Bengtsson.
The Executive Committee has decided that Dmitry
Soloviev cannot become a member of the Referee Committee at the tournaments sanctioned
by the ITHF till
The
Executive Committee has the right to announce this punishment because the
Executive Committee decides the structure of the Referee Committee at all ITHF
sanctioned tournaments.
The valid
rules give the organizers of the tournaments the duty of ensuring that no
participant is bothered by the audience. The Executive Committee has noticed
that players were bothered during their play-off matches in
"4.4 Making a complaint to the committee of referees
Any player can submit
a complaint to any member of the tournament’s committee of referees
(committee). ..."
The Referee
Committee is not allowed to enter any match and solve any problem until the
referee is called by the players. No referee was called by any participant
during play-off matches in
It means
there were made two mistakes in
The conclusion is that no punishment can be
awarded in this case. The Executive Committee can only recommend a slight
change of the Tournament Rules document. The members of the Referee Committee
should be allowed to act even without being asked by the players in the case of
helping the players to solve any problematic situations.
The Executive
Committee recognizes the problems between players and the audience at the
tournaments. The situation at the Swedish Masters 2007 was not good and the
same was at the World Championship.
The
Tournaments Rules were not valid at the Swedish Masters 2007 yet and that is
why the Executive Committee could not review the tournament after its finish
much. The Swedish Masters were organized using the rules valid for the Swedish
tournaments only.
The World
Championship was organized using the valid Tournament Rules document. The
tournament showed that neither the organizers neither the players know and use
the document properly.
The
Executive Committee hopes on a better situation at the future tournaments.
Keeping the rules both from players and the organizers is the most important
thing for the WTHT tournaments and the ITHF Championships.
The Executive Committee warns the organizers of
all WTHT tournaments that it is possible to take away the WTHT status of any
tournament if any violation of the valid rules occurs from the organizers of
the tournament.
The
Executive Committee welcomes the idea coming from
The following
points are not any new rules. They just explain how the Executive Committee
expounds the current valid rules for the case any unclearness exists. The valid
rules say that the organizers must ensure that the players are not bothered by
the audience. The Executive Committee would like to give instructions how to
apply this strict rule.
The complicated question how the audience can
behave during the matches has to be always answered according to the wish of
players. If any
player wishes the audience to be quiet during the match the organizers must
ensure the audience is quiet. If any problem occurs when solving this situation
the player must always ask a member of the Referee Committee to solve the
situation. The Referee Committee can decide to break the match immediately and
wait till the problem is solved.
The
audience is allowed to cheer the goals when the puck is inside the goal cage
until a new face-off is made. This rule is the same as tennis – audience can
“live” when the ball is not in the game.
The
audience must always respect the playing zone and cannot enter it if the zone
is set. The same is of course valid for the organizers and the referees (unless
the referee is asked to be the official referee of the match).
The
Executive Committee asks all the WTHT tournaments organizers to publish the
results as soon as possible. To know the results when the WTHT tournament is
finished is the most important for the ITHF. It is important not only because
of the updates of the WTHT ranking and the World Ranking.
WTHT
tournaments are the highest series of table hockey tournaments in the world and
they should be promoted as much as possible. The promotion should be done both
before the tournament and after the tournament. It is of course the most
important thing to know the results when creating any document for media after
the tournament.
The
Executive Committee would like to ask all the WTHT organizers to publish the
tournaments results till Monday
The Executive Committee reminds its previous
declaration:
“The Executive
Committee has decided that each ITHF member is RESPONSIBLE for the accuracy of
results sent to the World Ranking from its
country.
The Executive Committee
asks all the ITHF members to announce the official contacts for entering
results into the World Ranking. Results sent to the World Ranking
from the series of tournaments which were not approved by this official
national contact will be marked as the Level 5 World Ranking tournaments.” (http://www.ithf.info/stiga/ithf/docs/EC_statement_2007_01.htm)
The
deadline for announcing the official contacts is set to 1st December. Any results sent to the World Ranking
without approving by the official contact will be marked as the Level 5 World
Ranking tournament.
Every ITHF
member can announce more than one official contact. Every contact person could
be responsible for the different region if needed.
Signed by:
The Executive Committee members