In May 2020 Boccia England confirmed on its website that the Boccia England Rankings Lists would be frozen and would not be updated due to the remainder of the 2019/2020 being cancelled. We would like to clearly set out an explanation for the rationale for this decision by the Competition Review Group in light of recent concerns raised by players.

Rationale:

 

Fairness

A number of players did not have the same opportunity as others to compete in the competitions they had entered and gain ranking points due to the cancellation of competitions because of Covid-19:

  • The BE Cup - 49 of the 56 players in The BE Cup were adversely affected by the cancellation of the final BE Cup qualifying competition in Gloucester.
  • Heathcoat Cup - Up to 60 players involved in the Heathcoat Cup qualifying competitions missed any opportunity to gain ranking points.

Boccia England made a decision to not update the Ranking Lists for the 2019/2020 season out of fairness to all players particularly those who were unable to compete in their competitions.

 

Following policy

The Boccia England Rankings are updated at two points of the year, as per the Player Ranking System policy:

  1. At the end of the season
  2. Ahead of The BE Cup Finals

The onset of Covid-19 in March 2020 meant that we did not reach either of these points during the 2019/20 season and could therefore not update the rankings.

 

Unprecedented situation

Boccia England recognise those players that played, spent time, money, and resources to take part in competitions in 2019/2020.

 

Boccia England carried out research into other sports and considered decisions they had made regarding their ranking lists. It was found that, consistently across the board, other sports were freezing their ranking lists and reverting to the start of the season.

 

The decision by the Competition Review Group to not update any rankings for the 2019/2020 season will remain.

 

 

Actions for Boccia England

The Boccia England Competition Review Group will undertake a review of the current policy by the 30th of November 2021, in line with the publication of the new BISFed Competition and Ranking Manual.