No rule change on slide tackles: they still are not allowed

It seems like every captains' meeting, we debate slide tackles. This year, the referee assignor tried to change the rule again - to make it more simple to adminster for the referees. The effort wasn't successful. The rule did not change.

The rule is simple - no slide tackles. They are punished automatically wtih an indirect kick, or if there is a foul as well, a direct free kick. A slide tackle in the box will usually result in a yellow card and a PK. Even though it's a matter of discretion for the ref, it's likely to happen that way so avoid it.

Here's my post from last season, which contains the actual text of the rule.

I also figured I'd share some thoughts I collected from Jer and Nate, who know a lot about the game. It's interesting to see their perspectives as referees.

Nate:

It's one of those things. I know it when I see it. Like porn.Anyway,
it took me a long time to figure out the difference between Jesse's language and
the existing. In fact, I think if we had an English professor analyze the
language there would be no difference in meaning.I actually don't see in the
current language where a slide tackle is not punished with an indirect free
kick.It's late though and I'm not reading very well.It seams like the definition
of slide tackle was not in debate last night.From what I learned from Tom,
Jesse, and Ramon is that a slide tackle has to have two parts: a slide and a
tackle.Sliding to kick the ball out of bounds if it is not playable by an
opponent is not a slide tackle...it's just a slide (this doesn't happen too
often). Tackling the ball away from another player and then falling down
is not a slide tackle. This happens all the time and is often punished as a
slide tackle - if it's questionable the ref can just say you lunged in too hard
and that's why he called a foul.Anyway, I guess were the rule gets trampled on
is that there are very few people in our league that can slide tackle without
fouling the opponent. So more often than not the call should be a direct
free kick - and if the ref chooses not to give a yellow card then the slide can
seem to go unpunished. The ref should, in this case definitely have words
with the player to tell s/he to cut it out - or give the card.Every game is
called differently by referees. I don't think we can hope to eliminate
that in CCSL. I see some teams that adjust to the ref very quickly and
take advantage. The Brazilian national team does this beautifully and gets
more favorable calls.

Jer:

I've always thought the biggest problem is that it isn't a rule that is
consistently applied by the referees, so none of the players really know what to
expect. Regardless of what should result from a slide tackle infraction
(PK in the box, etc...) the bigger problem is that some refs know how to call it
properly and some don't. I think the thing that needs to be emphasized to
the Goleros is that we need to gauge our play this year based on how good the
referee is. Sometimes, you just know that the ref isn't good and we aren't
going to get a well-reffed match, so we shouldn't spend our energy worrying
about the calls that don't go our way.

One thing that hasn't been done that should be, the CCSL needs to have a mandatory referee meeting, so that people can get on the same page and someone like Jim Sadowski can establish some baseline consistency. They have all the captains dealing with this issue, and I see it more as an issue that needs to be dealt with directly with the referees.