Lines 820-822 explain the use of yellow/red cards for disciplinary sanctions. Are robots going to be shown yellow/red cards by the referee? If yes then everything is ok, but if not, then those three lines should be suspended because otherwise it is just an intentionally confusing and directly misleading set of statements in the rules.
Line 838 declares “Deliberately leaving the field of play without the referee’s permission”, which is a common scenario with robots as opposed to humans, as a cautionable offence. Shouldn’t it rather be just a removal penalty? Recall that two cautionable offences are a send-off offence.
Yes, it is intended that robots are shown yellow and red cards in the future. It will, however, not be possible to show yellow and red cards to teams anymore. This rule was never used anyway and the technical committee has the authority to decide about other sanctions with the new rules.
I think the word “deliberately” makes the difference here. Usually robots believe to be on the field when they are leaving the field, they don’t really have the intention to run away (I hope). However, I think this is the only reference to leaving the field in the new rule set, so the old penalty should be in place of “undeliberately” leaving the field.
Line 836 explains: a robot receives a yellow card, if it does not respect the distance to the ball when the play is restarted (freekick/cornerkick)
The Section “Position of free kick” explains:
if a player does not respect the distance it is considered as an incapable player and must be removed from the field (30s removal penalty).
What happens?
Player gets a yellow card AND a 30s removal penalty
Player gets a 30s removal penalty.
Personally I think the keywords are “when the play is restarted”
So if a Player does not respect the distance after 15s the player is considered as an incapable player.
If all player does respect the distance, the play is restarted.
If a player then moves inside the distance radius before the actual free kick or corner kick is happening the player receives a yellow card.
After that? what happens? Player will be removed and the free kick/corner kick will be repeated?
Could you please clarify those rules?
B)
Lines 852-853 explains:
“denying an obvious goalscoring opportunity to an opponent moving towards the player’s goal by an offence punishable by a free kick or a penalty kick”
In Germany this is called “Notbremse”. I don’t think there is an English word for it. This happens all the time, especially if you consider there are normally not more than 2-3 robot from each team on the field.
I have the feeling, that this will result in a game, where almost no players are allowed to play any more, because every robot gets a red card.
Even in a real football match it is hard to tell what is “an obvious goalscoring opportunity”.
I think this rule needs a more precise wording or the possibility to show a yellow card instead of a red card. Maybe 1-2 examples.