At the risk of restating Benji's point, I also agree with the possibility of banning bad spirited teams, maybe even deducting points over the course of a game - for major *spirit* fouls (normal fouls would still be up to the players themselves), a point could be deducted from the offending team. The observer would not be there to make a call in favour of one player or another, rather to ensure that deliberately risking the spirit of the game for gain is properly punished. I must say I'm not in favour of observers acting as referees and taking the responsibility for fair play away from the players, but in this case there is a major incentive for even bad spirited players to keep within the spirit of the game. Admittedly this is likely to do nothing to assist the flow of the game, but American Football seems to do fine with having stoppages every 3 seconds... The other big function the observers can fulfil would be as a "reference" for the rules - if there is a disagreement about what the rule actually IS, then I see no problem with having an independent person available to clear up disputes. Admittedly this tends to crop up more in the less experienced games, but the recent argument on stalling a player who is out of bounds etc. shows that there is always room for interpretation. Bring on the objections... ;) Magic disc Doctors (views are my own not my team yada yada...)
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