Which basketball rules does a player have to know since October 2026?

Article 41.1 is short. A player who has committed 5 fouls is told so by a referee and must leave the game immediately. From that moment you are an excluded player (4.1.3) and no longer entitled to play.

All your fouls count, not only the contact fouls the crowd sees. Appendix B.8.2 lists five kinds of player foul (personal, technical, flagrant, disqualifying and the disruptive foul), and all are entered against you on the scoresheet. A technical foul for hanging on the ring is one of your five, just like a block on a drive (36.3.1).

Your team has 30 seconds to replace you (19.3.6). If it takes longer, the delay can cost a time-out or a technical foul against the head coach.

Personal fouls never reset during the game. Team fouls do: after 4 team fouls in a quarter, every further personal foul by your team on a player not in the act of shooting gives the opponents 2 free throws (42.1.1, 42.2.1). Fouls in overtime count toward the fourth quarter (42.1.3).

Since 1 October 2026 a player is disqualified for the rest of the game when charged with (41.4, 36.2.3, 38.2.3):

• two category 1 technical fouls, or
• two flagrant fouls, or
• one category 1 technical foul and one flagrant foul.

The timer raises the game disqualification (GD) marker to tell you. You have 30 seconds to leave and must stay in the dressing room for the rest of the game or leave the building (41.6).

The foul that triggers the disqualification is the only one penalised. The opponents get no extra free throws for the disqualification itself (36.2.5, 38.2.4).

A disqualifying foul (Article 39) still exists for any flagrant unsportsmanlike action, and it sends you off straight away without a second foul. Fighting can do the same to substitutes who leave the bench area (40.2.1).

FIBA now splits technical fouls into two categories by severity (36.2.1). Only category 1 counts toward game disqualification. A category 1 technical foul for a player covers behaviour such as (36.2.1):

• disrespectful communication with referees, the commissioner, table officials, opponents or anyone on the benches;
• language or gestures likely to offend or incite spectators;
• baiting, taunting or provoking an opponent, including contact that is not serious enough for a flagrant or disqualifying foul;
• waving or placing your hands near an opponent's eyes;
• excessive swinging of the elbows without contact;
• faking being fouled.

Category 2 is the administrative side: delaying the game (touching the ball after a basket, slowing a throw-in, coming out late after half-time), hanging on the ring when it is not to finish a dunk or avoid injury, and goaltending a last free throw as a defender.

Either category costs your team 1 free throw for the opponents and counts as one of your 5 fouls and one of the team fouls (36.3.1, 36.3.2). Only category 1 moves you toward the GD marker.

The FIBA rule changes for 2026 removed the unsportsmanlike foul and split it into two types. The milder one does not count toward game disqualification, the severe one does.

A disruptive foul (Article 37) is an illegal contact that stops the flow of the game. The criteria are a tactical contact to stop a fast break, a contact anywhere on the court to stop the clocks at the end of a quarter, and a contact from behind or from the side on a player heading to the basket with no defender in front. The first and the third apply only until the attacker starts the act of shooting.

A flagrant foul (Article 38) goes beyond a personal or disruptive foul. FIBA gives three criteria: an action that is no legitimate basketball play, a reckless, violent or dangerous act, or an excessive, hard contact.

Both give the fouled player free throws (2 if not shooting; 1 extra if the basket counts; 2 or 3 if it does not) and then a throw-in for that team from the throw-in line in its frontcourt (37.2.2, 38.2.2). Both count as team fouls and as your personal tally toward five. Only the flagrant foul counts toward the GD marker.

It matters because a foul during the act of shooting is penalised with free throws instead of a throw-in. Article 15 has two definitions in 2026.

Jump shots and other moving shots (15.1.2). The act starts when you begin to move your shoulders and the ball upwards toward the opponents' basket.

Drives to the basket (15.1.3). The act starts when you have gathered the ball and it comes to rest in your hands, after finishing a dribble or catching the ball while moving, and you continue the shooting motion. It typically begins between the 3-point line and the basket.

FIBA adds one sentence that settles many arguments on the bench: there is no relationship between the number of legal steps taken and the act of shooting. Your two legal steps decide whether you travelled. The gather decides whether you were shooting.

The act ends when the ball leaves your hands and, if you jumped, only once both feet are back on the floor. If a defender holds your arms, you can be in the act of shooting even though the ball never left your hands. If you pass the ball off after the contact, you were not shooting anymore.

Since 2026 Article 15 says that for a player to be in the act of shooting, the player must be in the frontcourt. You may still shoot from anywhere, and a made basket counts. But a foul on a shot from your own backcourt is not a foul in the act of shooting.

There are two exceptions. During the last action before the game clock runs out at the end of a quarter or overtime, or before the shot clock runs out at any time, you can be in the act of shooting anywhere on the court. In those cases the act starts when you have gathered the ball and it comes to rest in your hands.

In practice that means a heave from behind half-court at the quarter buzzer is protected, while a long shot from your own half in the middle of a possession is not.

Once your dribble ends (you touch the ball with both hands or let it come to rest), you may not start a second one. Article 24.2 allows a new dribble only after you have lost control of the live ball in one of three ways:

1. you shot for a goal;
2. an opponent touched the ball;
3. on a pass or fumble, the ball touched or was touched by another player.

During the dribble you may not put any part of your hand under the ball and carry it, or bring it to a pause and then continue. You may throw the ball into the air while dribbling if it touches the court or another player before you touch it again (24.1.2).

There is no limit on steps while the ball is out of your hand during a dribble (24.1.2). Fumbling the ball at the start or end of a dribble is not a dribble, and neither is throwing it against the backboard and catching it again.

Travelling, the 3-second rule, the 8 seconds to cross half-court and the 24-second shot clock are covered in basketball violations explained.

Time-outs belong to the coaches. Only the head coach or the first assistant coach may request one (18.1, 18.3.1). A player who forms a T on the court has asked for nothing. Each time-out lasts 1 minute. A team gets 2 in the first half, 3 in the second (no more than 2 of them when the game clock shows 2:00 or less in the fourth quarter) and 1 in each overtime, and unused ones are lost (18.2.5, 18.2.6).

Substitutions belong to the substitute. Only the substitute may request one, by going to the scorer's table and asking with the hand signal, or by sitting on the substitution chair ready to play (19.3.1). You come on only when the referee beckons you onto the court (4.2.3, 19.3.4). If you were just substituted out, you may not come back until the ball is dead again after a period of running game clock (19.2.4).

A bleeding player or one with an open wound must be substituted and may return once the wound is covered (5.6). If you receive treatment from your bench, you must be substituted unless your team would drop below 5 players on the court (5.3).

Article 4.3 sets the uniform. Shirts and shorts share the same dominant colour front and back, shirts are tucked into shorts, sleeves end above the elbow and long sleeves are not allowed. Shorts end above the knee.

Numbers (4.3.2): only 0, 00 and 1 to 99, no two players on a team with the same number, at least 16 cm high on the back and 8 cm on the front. The home team, named first in the schedule, wears light shirts, the visitors dark ones, unless both teams agree to swap.

Not allowed (4.4.2): hard guards on fingers, hands, wrists, elbows or forearms, objects that can cut, jewellery and hair accessories. Fingernails must be closely cut.

Allowed: padded protection on the upper arm, thigh or lower leg, compression sleeves and tights, knee, shoulder and ankle braces, a transparent mouth guard, safe spectacles, wristbands and headbands up to 10 cm wide, and headgear that does not cover the face. Sleeves, tights, headgear, bands and tape must be the same solid colour for the whole team. Shoes may be any colour, with no flashing lights or reflective material (4.4.3).

The organizer or a volunteer at the table runs the board. As a player or parent you follow it.

• Personal fouls with shirt numbers. The basketball live scoreboard records each foul, optionally with the player's number. When a number reaches 5 fouls, the board marks that player as out on its own.
• One foul button. The board does not tell technical fouls, disruptive fouls and flagrant fouls apart. Every foul goes in as a personal foul, so the five-foul count stays right, but the board does not track category 1 technicals or flagrants and raises no GD marker. A game disqualification has to be followed at the scorer's table.
• Team fouls and time-outs. Team fouls are counted per quarter, overtime continues the fourth-quarter count, and a bonus marker lights up with the first penalised team foul. Time-outs are counted as 2 in the first half, 3 in the second and 1 per overtime; the board does not enforce the limit of 2 in the last two minutes.
• The table. A new tournament bracket or league for basketball starts with the FIBA table rules: 2 points for a win, 1 for a loss, 0 for a forfeit, then the games between the tied teams. JudgeMate does not draw lots. If the criteria cannot separate teams, the organizer sets the order.
• Forfeits count as 20-0 by default, and the organizer can change that score.
• Results. By default the organizer enters them. In group stages and round robins the organizer can switch on reporting by teams, where one side enters the score and the other confirms it. Leagues have no player reporting. Knockout, consolation and third-place results are confirmed only by the organizer, and a referee with the QR code keeps the score on the board without confirming the result.

The basketball referee guide covers the same rules from the officials' side.