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Question "Red attacker enters the circle with possession of the ball. On the far side of the circle Red and Blue players accidentally hook sticks and the sticks fall to the ground. In the meantime the Red attacker who had possession of the ball has released a pass across the circle. The Red attacker grabs the closest of the two sticks and puts the ball in the cage. It was not the Red attacker's stick, it was the Blue defender's stick. Is it a goal?"
Answer: A similar situation happened at a Regional Tournament in California and we would like to thank Riyaz Mohamed, the coach of the Arizona State University team for submitting the question.
At the November 2004 FIH meetings in Leipzig it was agreed to change the former rule 9.1 to read: "players on the field must hold their stick and not use it in a dangerous way". In the scenario presented above, the word "their" is important and indicates that a goal should not be awarded.
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