[robocup-small] Game stoppages

[Alireza Haghshenas]

Hi

According to the rules, allowance for human interaction with equipment, 
as well as timeouts are only possible during a stoppage in the game.
I name these chain of events:

A: the referee whistles for a stoppage (foul/goal/...)
B: the referee or his assistant reposition the ball
C: the referee announces the restart type (direct kick for blue)
D: the robots get into position
E: the ball is kicked

in 2008 games, specially in more strictly judged games, the referee 
rejected team member requests for anything, after event C.

The correct way to handle these requests is not explicitly specified in 
the rules, so we have to infer:

Rule 9 (Ball in and out of play) does not supply a clear end to game 
stoppages.
Rules 13 (free kicks), 15 (throw in), 16 (Goal kick) and 17 (corner 
kick) all state that: "the ball is in play when it is kicked and moves"
Low 7(The duration of the match): "Timeouts may only be taken during a 
break in play"

here is my point:

1: we have several terms for the same concept: "stoppage in play",  
"Ball out of play", "break in play", "stoppage in the match".
2: these rules implicitly state that timeout/interchanges/human 
interactions can be requested anytime between events A and E.

this may seem insignificant, but I remember a good portion of such 
requests being rejected by the referee, before event E. I had a 
discussion with Ulfert and we decided to keep judging the games as 
before, but to post this to mailing list for a formal clarification.

Thanks.