Scope
The authority and versions used here
This page covers six-player indoor volleyball under FIVB authority. Challenge procedure comes from The Volleyball Video Challenge System Regulations 2026, sections 1–11. The underlying point and replay rules come from the FIVB Official Volleyball Rules 2025–2028, approved in 2024 and implemented for competitions beginning after 1 January 2025.
A challenge system is not part of every volleyball match. The 2026 VCS document governs a match only where the FIVB system and required technology are in use. Beach volleyball, NCAA, NFHS, domestic federations and professional leagues can have different menus, limits and procedures; this page does not extend the FIVB indoor procedure to them.
Two decisions
Video review and replay answer different questions
- Challenge: did a listed fault occur? The footage may confirm the existing decision or require the score and next serving team to be corrected.
- Inconclusive review: the video does not settle the question. Under VCS section 8.2, the original decision stands and the team retains the challenge.
- Replay: no point is awarded for that rally. The teams play the rally again because the playing rules treat it as unfinished or invalid—for example, a simultaneous double fault or external interference.
“Replay” on a broadcast can mean watching a clip. In the FIVB rulebook, a replayed rally is an officiating outcome. The two uses should not be confused.
Entitlement
Two challenges per set, not two requests total
VCS sections 1.2–1.4 give each team a maximum of two challenges in each set. The count resets at the start of the next set.
- Successful: the team keeps the challenge.
- Unsuccessful: the team loses one challenge.
- Inconclusive: the original call stands, but the team keeps the challenge.
- Unnecessary: if the requesting team won the rally anyway, the request is declined and retained.
After two unsuccessful challenges in the same set, that team cannot challenge again until the next set. The first referee has a separate, unlimited power to initiate a referee's challenge under VCS section 3.1.
Timing
The last action has a seven-second route
For the final action of a rally, VCS sections 1.5.1 and 4 require the team to submit the request on the official Team Tablet within seven seconds after the rally ends. The team presses the challenge button, which sounds the horn, and then selects the challenge type within a further seven seconds. Failure to select the type in time costs the challenge.
If the tablet fails, section 10.1 allows the head coach or assistant coach to make a verbal request within the same seven-second window. That fallback is for a tablet failure; it is not a general right to demand review from the sideline.
2026 test
An earlier action must be bookmarked during the rally
The 2026 regulations mark review of an earlier action as a New Rule Test. A team, the Challenge Referee or the Video Challenge Operator can place a timestamped bookmark while the rally continues. After the rally, the team chooses the timestamp and challenge type within seven seconds.
Without a bookmark, an action earlier in the rally cannot be challenged under this test; only the last action remains available through the ordinary end-of-rally route. If the losing team leaves its bookmark active, it must proceed with the challenge after the point is awarded, and an unsuccessful review costs one challenge.
FIVB's 27 February 2026 implementation notice names the 2026 Volleyball Nations League, FIVB U17 World Championships and 2026 Continental Championships for the rule tests. It also says any change to the Official Volleyball Rules remains subject to review, so the bookmark procedure should not be presented as a permanent universal rule outside those events.
Challenge menu
Only listed fault types are reviewable
VCS section 2 lists the available categories, each subject to the installed technology:
- Ball in/out: available only when an automated in/out system is not being used.
- Block touch: where the ball goes out after a block, or remains in play and the issue is four team hits or two hits by the same player.
- Net touch: player contact with the net between the antennae.
- Antenna touch: contact with the antenna by the ball or a player.
- Foot fault: the service line, attack line or a foot completely crossing the centre line, within the exact categories stated in section 2.6.
- Floor touch: whether the ball touched the floor during a defensive save, including a pancake attempt.
- Last touch: which opponent made the final contact in a simultaneous contact or joust before the ball went out.
- Reaching beyond the net: specified contacts in the opponent's space, where the necessary view is available.
Defence and serve-receive touches are an additional 2026 New Rule Test where technology and vision are available. The FIVB implementation notice says clear and visible video contact is required to overturn the original decision.
Decision path
How to analyse a challenge
- Confirm the system is in use. No official VCS means no FIVB challenge entitlement.
- Locate the alleged fault. Is it the last action, or was an earlier action bookmarked under the 2026 test?
- Check the clock. Submit the request and identify the type within the applicable seven-second windows.
- Check the menu and technology. A non-listed action is rejected; some listed types still depend on the available system and camera view.
- Review the relevant sequence. The Challenge Referee can use challenge-system and broadcast footage; accuracy takes priority over speed.
- Find the first fault. The earliest fault seen in the reviewed sequence controls, even if it differs from the requested fault or is not itself on the menu.
- Apply the result. The first referee announces the final decision, identifies the next server and adjusts the score if necessary.
First fault
A correct challenge may still not win the rally
FIVB VCS section 6.4 follows the playing rule in Rule 6.1.2.1: where faults occur successively, the first one counts. Video review is therefore chronological, not a vote on one isolated frame.
When both teams challenge and both alleged faults are shown, section 8.3 says a team's later, proven fault does not displace the earlier one. That team can lose the rally but retain its challenge because the challenged event did occur. “Successful challenge” and “wins the point” are not always the same outcome.
During review
The rally decision is paused before other requests
Under VCS sections 5 and 7, each team may request only one challenge for a rally, although both teams may challenge the same rally. Challenges take priority over time-outs, substitutions and Libero replacements. Players remain on court and none of those changes is permitted until the decision is announced.
After the result, the team that requested the challenge may not request a time-out before the next completed rally. The other team retains its time-out right. The first referee's VCS decision is final and not appealable under section 8.1.
True replay
When FIVB rules replay the rally
The Official Volleyball Rules 2025–2028 identify specific replay outcomes:
- Simultaneous opposing faults: Rule 6.1.2.2 calls a double fault and replays the rally. Successive faults are different; only the first counts.
- Serious accident during play: Rule 17.1.1 requires the referee to stop play immediately for medical assistance and then replay the rally.
- External interference: Rule 17.2 requires play to stop and the rally to be replayed.
A replay leaves no completed rally from which to award a point. By contrast, if video establishes which team committed the decisive fault, the normal result is a corrected point and next service—not another rally.
Premature whistle
A playable ball matters
VCS section 9.1 allows a challenge after a premature referee whistle only if the interruption occurred while the ball was still playable. If the ball was clearly no longer playable and the whistle did not affect the natural outcome, no new challenge is available, except for an action already bookmarked under the test procedure.
The regulation does not say that every mistaken or early whistle automatically produces a replay. The first referee oversees the process, applies the playing rules and has the Rule 23.2.3 power to decide matters not expressly provided for.
2026 replay test
Overhead infrastructure and camera contact diverge
For the named 2026 test competitions, FIVB announced that a first or second ball contacting venue infrastructure above the field of play can remain live if it stays playable on the same side. If it rebounds into the opponent's court, it is a fault. Contact with a spider camera or crane camera inside the Field of Play, however, continues to produce a replay.
This is a competition test, not wording added to Rule 17 of the 2025–2028 rulebook. The event's implementation instructions therefore control an overhead-contact incident.
System failure
No cameras means live officiating, not an automatic replay
If the entire VCS fails, section 10.2 requires the third referee to inform the teams. The match continues under the Official Volleyball Rules with no challenge requests until the system is restored and the teams are notified. A technology failure alone does not erase rallies played while review is unavailable.
This is different from external interference with the rally itself. One removes a review mechanism; the other can require the rally to stop and be replayed under Rule 17.2.
Worked case 1
An earlier net touch was not bookmarked
Situation: in a 2026 VNL rally, Red suspects a net touch midway through play but places no bookmark. Red later loses when its attack lands out and requests review of the earlier net contact.
FIVB 2026 test ruling: the earlier action is not available for a team challenge. With no bookmark, Red could challenge only the last action through the seven-second end-of-rally route. The decisive fact is when the suspected fault occurred, not how clear a later replay looks.
Worked case 2
A pancake angle proves nothing
Situation: Blue challenges a floor touch on the last action within seven seconds. The player's hand and body hide the contact point in every available angle.
FIVB VCS 2026 ruling: the evidence is inconclusive. The original referee's decision stands, but Blue retains its challenge under sections 1.2(c) and 8.2. “Not visible” is not affirmative proof of either a floor touch or a legal save.
Worked case 3
An outside ball enters the playing area
Situation: while the served ball remains in play, a loose ball from an adjacent court rolls into the defenders' movement path and the referee stops the rally.
FIVB 2025–2028 ruling: if the referee judges this to be external interference, Rule 17.2 requires a replay. The outcome comes from the playing rule, not from a team's challenge balance, and neither team receives the interrupted rally's point.
2026 competition note
VNL uses a remote review hub
For the 2026 Volleyball Nations League, FIVB announced a pilot remote VCS hub: selected Challenge Referee and operator functions are performed centrally instead of entirely at the venue. That changes where some review work happens, not the team's two-challenge allowance, seven-second process or the first referee's responsibility for the final decision.
Common mistakes
Five claims the rules do not support
- “Every close call is challengeable.” The request must fit the section 2 menu and available technology.
- “Any action can be selected after the rally.” Under the 2026 test, an earlier action needs a live bookmark.
- “Inconclusive means the challenge failed.” The call stands, but the challenge is retained.
- “Winning the challenge always wins the point.” An earlier fault in the reviewed sequence controls.
- “Video review means replay the point.” Clear evidence normally corrects the score; replay is a separate playing-rule outcome.
Official references
Governing-body sources and effective version
Checked on 28 August 2026 against FIVB's current indoor rulebook, 2026 VCS regulations and published 2026 test notices. The bookmark, defence/serve-receive touch and post-challenge time-out provisions are marked as 2026 tests, not permanent changes to the 2025–2028 playing rules. Event regulations and installed technology determine whether a listed review is available.