Team Refuses to Play

[Robert Goodman]

Originally Posted by Ref Ump Welsch

Your state associations SHOULD have some kind of procedure laid out for you in sits like this. Nebraska and Iowa both tell their officials, if the coach refuses to put his team out on the field, the R is supposed to talk to the coach, remind him that refusal to play is a forfeiture,

Is "refusal to play" (i.e. not appearing ready, not having players on the field, or simply saying so) a forfeiture by team B under conditions other than the resumption-of-play situations Fed instituted a few years ago? That is, if the ball is readied for play in most situations (not coming out of a time out, not preliminary to a free kick), where does it say team B needs to be ready or to do anything? AFAICT, they're just playing short -- by 11 players -- which is legal. AFAICT, because the try isn't one of those resumption-of-play situations, allowing team A to snap unopposed is correct. It's only after the completion of the try that you first get a situation where the rules positively require both teams to be ready, and by that time the protesting team may have cooled off.

Robert