Legal position first; contact responsibility second.

The rule and version used here

This page applies the FIBA Official Basketball Rules 2024 v1.0a, approved by the FIBA Central Board and valid from 1 October 2024. As checked on 26 August 2026, this remains FIBA’s effective international ruleset through 30 September 2026.

FIBA has already published Official Basketball Rules 2026 v1.1, valid from 1 October 2026. Its Articles 33.3–33.10 retain the core legal-position, charge, block and no-charge tests explained here. The NBA comparison below is separately labelled; NCAA, NFHS, youth and domestic competitions may use different wording or court markings.

How to analyse the collision

1. Decide whether the contact matters. Contact is not automatically a foul; identify actual displacement, restriction or an unfair advantage.
2. Identify ball control. FIBA applies no time-and-distance requirement when guarding a player holding or dribbling the ball. A player without the ball must usually be given enough room to stop or change direction.
3. Find the first legal guarding position. The defender must face the opponent with both feet on the court and must not create contact while taking that position.
4. Track the defender after that moment. Lateral and backward movement, a vertical jump and turning within the cylinder for protection can remain legal; movement towards the attacker or an extended hip, shoulder, arm or leg cannot.
5. Locate the contact. FIBA’s charge/block principle treats contact on the legally positioned defender’s torso as caused by the player with the ball.
6. Protect an airborne player. Ask whether the landing place and direct path were already occupied at take-off.
7. Apply the no-charge semicircle last. It operates only when all of Article 33.10’s conditions are present and has specific exceptions.

Both feet down starts the position

Under FIBA Articles 33.3 and 33.4, initial legal guarding position requires the defender to face the opponent and have both feet on the court. Against a player who controls the ball, the attacker must expect to be guarded: the defender may take that position even within a fraction of a second, provided the defender gets there without causing contact.

“Both feet planted at impact” is therefore the wrong replay test. Both feet are required when the initial position is established. Afterwards, one or both feet may be briefly off the court while the defender moves laterally or backwards to maintain the position. The defender may also remain still, jump vertically or turn within the cylinder to avoid injury.

The defender may move, but not into the attacker

Legal guarding position is a continuing status, not a licence to make any later movement. A defender loses the benefit of the charge/block principle by moving towards the player with the ball at contact or by extending an arm, shoulder, hip or leg into the route. A lean or reach outside the defender’s cylinder can make the defender responsible even if the feet reached the general area first.

The useful replay question is not “was the defender moving?” It is “after establishing position, was the defender moving laterally or backwards to maintain it, or moving into the opponent’s path and causing the collision?”

Where the contact lands matters

FIBA says that, in a charge/block situation involving the player with the ball, contact must occur on the defender’s torso for the defender to be treated as first at the place of contact. A shoulder-to-chest collision can therefore support a charge when the guarding position was legal and maintained.

Contact with an extended knee, hip, arm or leg points to a different analysis because the defender may have enlarged the cylinder and impeded the attacker. The same protection runs both ways: an attacker who pushes off, hooks an arm, spreads a leg or leads with an illegally extended body part can commit an offensive foul even where a conventional chest-to-chest charge would not be available.

Take-off fixes the protected landing path

Article 33.6 gives a player who has jumped the right to land at the take-off spot and at another spot if both that landing place and the direct path to it were unoccupied at take-off. A defender cannot move underneath after the player becomes airborne and then claim to have arrived before the landing.

If the defender already occupied a lawful position beyond the landing place when the attacker took off, the airborne player can remain responsible for momentum-driven contact. Moving under an airborne opponent and causing contact is more serious than an ordinary block: FIBA says it is usually an unsportsmanlike foul and can be disqualifying in some circumstances.

The arc removes a charge in a defined drive

FIBA’s no-charge semicircle has a radius of 1.30 m measured to the outer edge of the line, and the line is part of the area. Article 33.10 applies when an airborne offensive player controls the ball, drives over the semicircle line and attempts a shot or pass, while the defender has one or both feet touching the semicircle area.

When those conditions are met, contact caused by the airborne attacker is not called as a team-control foul unless the attacker illegally uses the hands, arms, legs or body. That does not require an automatic blocking foul. If the defender has not caused illegal contact, the result may be a legal play and no whistle.

When the semicircle does not protect the attacker

The FIBA Official Interpretations 2024, examples 33-3 through 33-10, identify important limits:

• Behind the backboard: a play developing from the area between the semicircle and the endline is judged by the ordinary cylinder and charge/block rules.
• Rebounds: the no-charge rule does not apply to rebounding contact after a shot.
• Illegal extra action: a push-off, extended arm, knee, leg or other illegal use of the body can still be an offensive foul.
• Clearing a route: a driver who passes to a trailing teammate and then crashes through a defender to clear the teammate’s route can commit a team-control foul.
• Vertical defender: if a defender jumps vertically from the semicircle and has neither foot touching it when contact occurs, Article 33.10 does not decide the play; normal verticality and contact rules do.

Unlike the NBA rule, FIBA Article 33.10 does not make “primary” versus “secondary” defender status a condition. Importing that NBA vocabulary into a FIBA decision can produce the wrong answer.

Falling does not settle the foul

A player can absorb legal contact and fall without the opponent committing a foul. The referee must judge whether the contact was illegal, not which reaction looked more dramatic. Conversely, staying upright does not make a late hip-check or move-under legal.

FIBA Article 33.16 separately defines faking as simulating a foul or using theatrical, exaggerated movement to create that impression. Under the 2024 Official Interpretations, the first team fake normally brings a warning; a later fake by that team brings a technical foul, while an excessive no-contact fake may be penalised immediately. The foul decision and the fake decision are separate—a player may be genuinely fouled and still exaggerate the reaction.

What the FIBA whistle changes

• Charge while the attacking team controls the ball: charge the personal foul to the offender, cancel any basket that cannot legally count, and give the opponents a throw-in nearest the infraction. Article 41.2.2 means no free throws are awarded merely because the attacking team is in the team-foul penalty.
• Blocking foul on a player not shooting: give a nearest-place throw-in, or 2 free throws if the defending team is already in the team-foul penalty.
• Blocking foul on a shooter: a made goal counts plus 1 free throw; an unsuccessful 2-point or 3-point attempt brings 2 or 3 free throws respectively.
• Ordinary contact: if the contact is incidental and creates no illegal restriction or displacement, play continues.
• Dangerous move-under: judge the greater sanction under the unsportsmanlike or disqualifying-foul criteria rather than treating it as an ordinary block only.

Review depends on the competition having IRS

There is no universal video review for every close block/charge call. In a FIBA game using the Instant Replay System, Appendix F allows review of whether a called personal foul met the applicable criteria. A head coach has one Head Coach’s Challenge for the game, successful or not, and may use it on the listed reviewable situations without the ordinary time restrictions. Clear and conclusive video evidence is required to change the decision.

Competitions that do not use FIBA’s IRS procedure leave the on-court ruling in place. Local competition regulations can also supplement the rulebook, so the event regulations must be checked before assuming a challenge is available.

The defender is sliding sideways

Situation: B1 faces dribbler A1 with both feet down, then slides laterally. A1’s shoulder contacts the centre of B1’s torso and displaces B1 outside the no-charge semicircle.

FIBA 2024 ruling: team-control charge on A1. B1 established initial legal guarding position, maintained it with permitted lateral movement, and received the contact on the torso. B1 did not need to be stationary at impact.

The defender reaches the spot with a hip

Situation: B1 gets one foot across A1’s route and swings the hip into A1 as contact occurs.

FIBA 2024 ruling: blocking foul on B1 if that illegal extension impedes or displaces A1. Being near the route first is not enough; B1 did not establish and maintain the required position within the cylinder.

One foot touches the arc

Situation: airborne A1 drives over the no-charge line for a lay-up. Legally positioned B1 has one foot touching the line, and A1 makes ordinary torso contact without an extended arm, knee or leg.

FIBA 2024 ruling: no team-control charge. The line is part of the semicircle and Article 33.10 applies. Do not automatically call a block; if B1 caused no illegal contact, this can be a legal no-call.

The same contact follows a rebound

Situation: A1 jumps for an offensive rebound, catches the ball and, before landing, crashes through legally positioned B1, whose foot touches the no-charge line.

FIBA 2024 ruling: team-control charge on A1 if the illegal contact is through B1’s torso. The Official Interpretations say the no-charge semicircle does not apply to rebounding play; the ordinary charge/block principles decide it.

Do not transfer the FIBA arc test to the NBA

The NBA 2025–26 Official Rules use related but different mechanics. The NBA’s Restricted Area has a 4-foot radius. Its special protection concerns a secondary defensive player trying to draw a charge when the attacker takes a path directly to the rim. The defender must establish position before the offensive player begins the upward motion, and both feet must be completely outside the Restricted Area to draw that charge.

The NBA exception is also different: a player may be legally positioned inside the Restricted Area when the offensive player receives the ball inside the NBA-defined Lower Defensive Box. An on-ball primary defender and a defender making a legal vertical attempt are not analysed as if every foot on the arc automatically creates a block.

Under NBA Rule 12B, Section II, a charge by the dribbler is an offensive foul, does not count as a team foul and gives the opponents a sideline throw-in. NBA Rule 14 allows a team to challenge a called personal foul charged to itself; each team starts with one challenge and earns a second if the first is successful. Those NBA procedures should not be used to explain a FIBA game.

Five claims to avoid

• “The defender’s feet must be set at impact.” FIBA requires both feet down for the initial guarding position, then permits lawful lateral or backward movement.
• “The defender was moving, so it is a block.” Direction, cylinder and contact point matter more than movement alone.
• “The attacker jumped first, so the defender is late.” Take-off protects an unoccupied landing route; it does not erase a position already occupied legally.
• “A foot on the arc always means a block.” FIBA’s semicircle removes a team-control charge only in its defined drive, and a no-call remains possible.
• “Primary and secondary defender decide every ruleset.” That distinction is central to the NBA Restricted Area provision, not FIBA Article 33.10.

Governing-body sources and effective versions

• FIBA — Official Basketball Rules 2024 v1.0a, valid 1 October 2024: Articles 2.5.7, 33.1–33.10, 34.2, 41.2.2 and Appendix F
• FIBA — Official Basketball Rules Interpretations 2024 v1.0a, valid 1 October 2024: interpretations 33-1–33-10 and 36-12–36-16
• FIBA — Official Basketball Rules 2026 v1.1, valid from 1 October 2026: Articles 33.3–33.10
• NBA — 2025–26 Official Rules: Rule 12B Section II, Rules 13–14 and Comments on the Rules, Section C
• NBA — Video Rulebook, Block / Charge archive, including January 2026 examples

Checked on 26 August 2026 against the effective FIBA 2024 rulebook and interpretations, the already-published FIBA 2026 rulebook that takes effect on 1 October 2026, and the NBA 2025–26 Official Rules. The FIBA baseline controls this page; domestic federations, leagues and tournaments may add competition-specific replay procedures or adaptations.