To fill the cup you often have to empty it!


Every change, even tiny, always causes uncertainty, small or big anxieties, fear of making mistakes, but above all fear of not understanding or having understood good/bad? For some people the learning process will be rapid, for others slow in any case this will only be the beginning! There are referees who after a whole year are still struggling to assimilate the new. Especially under pressure, the referee draws on his experience, the sedimentary habits in years of refereeing will inevitably come out. Everyone will have his own ways and times to “empty the cup” and fill it with new knowledge. At the beginning an additional effort of concentration will be necessary, especially the control of what is being done on the field, the ability to reflect in the downtime if what is done is correct, the ability to help and the humility to be helped!

Clearly language can be an obstacle and that is why FIBA tries to use the same terminology over and over again and has introduced a manual, available on the App iRef Accademy Library, where you can find all the official terms and abbreviations. The referee of the third millennium, at whatever latitude he is at, must start “thinking” in English, the original language of the regulations, more immediate and direct and above all as far as “world” basketball is concerned, we at WeRef will continue to publish in Italian and Spanish even if sometimes the nuances of Neolatine languages require more attention to avoid confusion.

The changes for 2020 have been divided into two types of change:

  • 4 Major changes , two of which with language adjustment in line with the philosophy just illustrated.
    • Art 15 /Player in the act of shooting (AOS): different definition for shooting and for continuous movement – note that we are talking about movement – not motion
    • Art 33 / Cylinder: defines the offensive player cylinder with or without the ball. The rule focuses on legal and illegal actions by the offense and defense in respect to their and their opponent’s cylinders. The definition of defensive cylinder has not changed.
    • Art 37 / Unsportsmanlike Foul (UF): the “Open Path” (UF – C4) is clarified, eliminating any reference to defensive and offensive players. Criteria is changed to require a player to be progressing towards the opponent’s basket.
    • Art 35 / Double Foul (DOF): it simplifies the definition of double foul, to sanction a DF it is required that both fouls are of the same category (PF – UF* – DF *: *in the case of a UF and a DF will still be considered a double foul).
  • 4 Minor changes
    • Art 5/19/44 Players: Injury/Substitutions/Special Situations: clarifying when a player who receive an assistance is treated as an injured player
    • Appx B / The Scoresheet: clarify how in a Fight (Art 39) the measures against the actively participating coach must be registered: after his expulsion, only one D2 must be registered.
    • Art 49 / change of the duties of the scorekeeper and the timekeeper in relation to modern equipment tools (Substitution, individual and team penalty markers, sound signals)
    • Appx F / Instant Replay System (IRS): everything concerning IRS contained in Art 46 has been transferred to the new Appendix F – only for championships where the IRS protocol is to be applied (some Federations and/or alloys have an integrated or different IRS protocol).

If you will be patient enough to follow us, we will try to propose, on the basis of what FIBA has said, two topics (1 Major & 1 Minor) for each post, hoping that the posts are not too long and heavy. At the beginning of the posts we will use the complete terminology with the addition of the abbreviations, in the following we will use only the abbreviations, we all try together to add new contents to the cup without overflowing the knowledge. Work in progress! 🏀