[eflfanatic]

IF a standard has to be decided, IMHO the only need for that should be for the creation of a miniature football federation, with a national (or world) championship title :
In Texas, New York, or even London or Paris, federation players/coaches will play exactly the same ruleset and material. See the table hockey championship : same rules, figs and hockey table (STIGA) in Moscow, Finland, Italy, Canada, USA, etc...

For me it's the only need for standards : same rules, same figures, same boards (or at least same measurements), so you can organize standard conferences and finally a national title. Like the real sport thing. It joins the famous debate "Is MF a real sport ?" . If it is, scale standards can be an improvement.

Scale standards in a competitive sport purpose : YES

Dimitri,

Thank you for your response. I think you have hit the nail on the head.

To anyone else interested,

I quess the real reason I started this poll was to get the opinions of everyone before beginning on the next project of the MFCA's Rules Committee. We have completed the "Educational Rule Set for Beginning and Returning Coaches" If you have not read them, please do so. http://miniaturefootball.org/2009/10...the-new-coach/

Our current project is a "For Advanced Play" rule set which will more or less be an encyclopedia of the various rules used by league and tournament organizers and a guide for anyone wanting to organize a league or tournament. Here is the stated Purpose, Mission and Introduction of the Rules Committee for this project.

Purpose: To create an “Encyclopedia” of rules and terms used by current and past league and tournament organizers to play the game of “Miniature Football”

Mission: By examining and evaluating the various rules that are currently being used and have been used in the past by league and tournament organizers, we are attempting to compile an “encyclopedia” of terms, rules and game play formats, to give the serious coach of miniature football a guide to use in choosing a league or tournament format to challenge and further develop his skills and coaching abilities. This will also serve as a guide to coaches who wish to organize their own local or regional league or tournament for the purpose of attracting other coaches who may wish to play the game of miniature football in a more competitive environment.

This guide will also attempt to serve as a history of leagues and tournaments and as a historical account of the development of rules and equipment (game boards, figures, bases and other innovative developments) used by league and tournaments to play the game of miniature football.

Introduction

In 1947, the “Tudor Metal Products, Corp.” of Brooklyn, NY introduced the “Tru-action” electric football game. It consisted of a “vibrating” metal game board with football field graphics and 2-D metal miniature football figures that moved on the field, when the electric switch was turned on, to simulate playing a game of real football. There was even a metal miniature quarterback that could pass and kick a miniature felt football.

The rules for playing the game were pretty basic and usually just involved setting players up in basic offensive and defensive formations, giving a running back the ball, and running the board until the ball carrier either scored (by crossing the goal line), was tackled (by being hit by a player of the opposite team), ran out of bounds, (hit the sides of the game board), or, in most cases, turned around and began to run towards the WRONG end zone.

Since that time the game of electric or “miniature” football has seen many advancements, developments, and innovations, in equipment and rules used by coaches to make the game more challenging, realistic, and requiring more skill and strategic planning to effectively win games and achieve the goal of league or tournament “Champion”.

This guide and encyclopedia of rules will help the miniature football coach gain a better understanding of the many ways to play the game and find or develop a rule set of his own to enhance his level of competitive skills.

After the competion of this project, "prospectively" it will be the mission of the Rules Committee to come up with a "universal' or "uniform" set of rules for MFCA "sponsored" or "sanctioned" league and tournament competitions on a "local", "regional", "national" and, hopefully, "international" level.

So again, PLEASE VOTE!!!!. This is very important and will give us some direction in the way that the MFCA and the Rules Committee needs to proceed.