The new rules of 2016
- May 9, 2014
- 2 min read
As the two-day programme of intense preparation for the 2015 Men’s Junior World Championship in Brazil come to an end, the IHF referees are ready for the task ahead.
The preparation programme began on Saturday (18th July) with a number of focused meetings that included lectures, group discussion and video analysis. Meetings were led by Playing Rules and Referees Commission (PRC) members Ramon Gallego, Roland Bürgi and Pan-American member, Salvio Sedrez.
A variety of topics were covered, including mixed teaching advice from the IHF, wing and pivot behaviour and collaboration at the table before the referees undertook a written test.
Also discussed was the testing of possible future rule changes taking place at the tournament in Brazil as well as at the upcoming Men’s Youth World Championship in Russia.
There are four possible rule changes being tested at the 2015 Men’s Junior (BRA) and Youth (RUS) World Championships:
• Player injury: only those cases where on-court medical attention is absolutely necessary will be treated on the court
• Passive play: a limit of 5-8 passes is allowed following the forewarning signal from the referees
• Last minute: this rule has become the ‘last 30 seconds of a game’ rule, where clear punishments are defined for different scenarios to take into account the increasing aggression often seen as a close match comes to an end
• Blue card: a disqualification that requires a written report is indicated by the showing of a blue card in addition to the red card
Following Saturday’s programme the IHF referees and delegates to be based in the second host city for the Men's Junior World Championship: Uberaba, travelled to their hotel ahead of the opening ceremony and first match on Sunday (19th July).
On Sunday morning the shuttle-run test was conducted at each location, followed by a rule test and a video test.
Referee performance will be analysed by PRC members throughout the tournament, as will the effectiveness of the test rules.
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