FIBA - FIBA decides on minor rule changes and establishes regulations for coaches, player agents and leagues

Other decisions include event assignments

GENEVA (FIBA Central Board) - The FIBA Central Board, the highest executive body of the International Basketball Federation, has concluded yesterday its two-day meeting in Nyon, Switzerland.

Rule Changes

The Board decided to make slight amendments to the official FIBA Basketball rules. In detail, the following rules amendments have been adopted:

 1. If the request for a time-out or a substitution is made before the ball is at the disposal of a player for a throw-in following the free throw (s), the time out or the substitution shall be granted for both teams if the last or only free throw is successful.

 2. If a free throw(s) is followed by a throw-in at the centre line extended, opposite the scorer's table, the time-out or the substitution shall be granted after the last free throw for both teams whether the last free throw is successful or not.

 3. During the last two (2) minutes of the fourth (4th) period or each extra-period, if a time out is granted:
 * to the non-scoring team after the valid field goal,
 * to the team that has been awarded the possession of the ball in its back court,     the throw-in, following the time-out, shall be administrated at the centre line extended, opposite the scorer's table. The player taking the throw-in shall be entitled to pass the ball to a team-mate at any place on the playing court.

These rule amendments become effective as of 1st October 2005.

Assignment of FIBA World Championships
The Board has assigned the organisation of the FIBA U21 World Championship for Women 2007 to Guatemala. It is the first time a country from Central America is hosting a FIBA championship. The organisation of the FIBA U19 World Championship for Women 2007 has been assigned to the Slovak Republic.

New Regulations
The Board has established and adopted new Internal Regulations. For the first time there will be regulations regarding coaches, player agents and leagues.

Regulations governing coaches
The establishment of a coaches regulation is the start a long term strategy to establish a database of coaches from all around the world at the highest level in cooperation with all FIBA national federations. In a second step FIBA will establish quality standards for coaches with the ultimate goal to raise the level of coaching worldwide.

Regulations governing player agents
The regulations for player agents form guidelines for an area which was not regulated on a global level so far and determine the basic requirements for obtaining FIBA recognition. These regulations were drafted in co-operation with player agents.

Regulations governing the Leagues
These regulations govern the details in the relationship between the National Basketball Federations and National Leagues, as well as the relationship between international Leagues and FIBA and FIBA Zones.

Patrick Baumann, FIBA Secretary General, underlined the importance of these new regulations: "For the first time we have a framework for coaches and player agents. With the coaches regulations we hope to give the coaches a better standing world wide and - in the long run - improve the quality and the standards for the formation of our players world wide. With the regulations of the player agents we hope to set certain guidelines for player representatives who have an enormous economic impact on the sport and an immense responsibility for their clients. Last, but not least, the regulations governing the leagues should become a pillar of our organisation and hopefully lead our sport towards a fruitful and constructive relationship between the leagues and the federative structure."

2006 FIBA World Congress - Date set

The date for the next FIBA World Congress, which is the general assembly of all 212 national federations of FIBA, has been confirmed for 28th and 29th August 2006 in Tokyo, Japan. It is the first time that the representatives from all countries affiliated to FIBA will meet during the FIBA World Championship. So far the Congress was always staged before the World Championship and this change is intended to enable as many representatives as possible to attend the games.