And the Board Says....

In a message from El Presidente L. Skywalker Crofoot the WAKA Gaithersburg Board has ruled that the matchup between the Kicker Bees and Balls to the Wall will be a tie!!!

Ruling was based on the following according to the WAKA Gaithersburg Commander-in-Chief:
While we agree that the Bees are a veteran team and should know the rules, we believe that the ref should have made the call at the point he noticed the players were not wearing their WAKA shirts, rather than waiting until the end of the game to announce the forfeit. Overall, this rule has not been strictly enforced over the years and although teams are asked to live with the decisions of the head ref during a game, we feel that in this case because no warning was issued ( i.e. the team had no opportunity to either remove the players from the game or have them change shirts), a forfeit would be unfair.

I do want to say that I'm glad the ref in question pays close attention to official WAKA emails, has read the rulebook and knows the rules, and can't fault him in that regard for trying to do the right thing. Our league, however, has thrived for 3+ seasons on a loose interpretation of this and one or two other rules in the WAKA rulebook. I think the ultimate, big-picture goal for us as a league is to make sure that players have a fun, fair, and safe playing environment, and I think we do a pretty good job at that. If this incident had endangered the safety of the players on the field, our decision would definitely have been different.