At the conclusion of the World Championships for Men and Women FIBA have activated the new edition of the Official Basketball Rules.

Summary of Main Changes
A short summary of the rule changes in the 2014 FIBA Official Basketball Rules are:

• The No-charge semi-circle line is now part of the no-charge semi-circle area. The significance of this is that the defender must have both feet outside the line (and not touching the line) to be able to take a charge.
• Each team is only allowed a maximum of (2) time-outs in the last 2 minutes of the final quarter. This does not apply in an overtime period because each team has only 1 timeout in each overtime period.
• Following an offensive rebound after a shot for a field goal or free throw, the shot clock shall be re-set to fourteen (14) seconds.
• The penalty for a Technical Foul (on a player, coach or the bench) has been reduced to one (1) free throw followed by possession from half way.
• A player is disqualified when charged with two (2) technical fouls, even if they have less than 5 personal fouls.
• There are some new/changed signals for the Officials to use.
• A player that is inbounding the ball from the baseline after the opposition scored a basket cannot run along the baseline anymore.

Many of these may not apply in domestic (EDJBA) competition, but there are some that will apply in the VJBL and higher level competitions. It is important that players, coaches, scorers, parents and referees are familiar with the latest rule changes so that there is minimal confusion at games.

The Official 2014 FIBA rule book has been published, and is now available for download here –

http://www.foxsportspulse.com/assoc_page.cgi?client=1-4089-0-0-0&sID=52373&&news_task=DETAIL&articleID=31934479

The Official Referee signals is also available for download here - https://websites.mygameday.app/get_file.cgi?id=3381259

The most notable change is around the signalling of player numbers to the bench – particularly numbers from 20 above (decade digit is signalled using the “back of the hand”, then turning the hand around for the “units” number).

Please take the time to read these documents, 

WBA Administration