A red card costs a point; removal requires a card combination.

The ruleset used on this page

This page applies the FIVB Official Volleyball Rules 2025-2028 for six-player indoor volleyball. The edition was approved by the 39th FIVB World Congress in 2024 and is to be implemented in competitions beginning after 1 January 2025. The controlling provisions are Rules 20-21, with Rules 6.4, 15.7-15.8 and 19.5 controlling what happens when a player must leave.

This is an international FIVB baseline, not a universal statement for every game called volleyball. Beach volleyball has its own FIVB rulebook. NCAA, NFHS, national federations, sitting volleyball, youth events and domestic leagues may use different card effects, substitution rules or disciplinary processes; their appointed rules must be checked separately.

How to read the referee's cards

• No card: the first referee may give a verbal warning through the game captain for minor misconduct.
• Yellow card: formal misconduct warning; recorded on the scoresheet, with no point, service change or removal.
• Red card alone: misconduct penalty; the opponent receives a point and the right to serve.
• Red and yellow held jointly: expulsion; the person is out for the rest of the current set.
• Red and yellow separately, one in each hand: disqualification; the person is out for the rest of the match.

These are the FIVB symbols in Rule 21.6 and Diagram 9. A broadcast description such as “sent off” is incomplete unless it distinguishes set-only expulsion from match disqualification.

Misconduct is separate from a playing fault

Rule 21 concerns incorrect conduct by a listed team member towards officials, opponents, team-mates or spectators. Under Rule 4.1.1, that can include players and Liberos, the coach and assistant coaches, and listed medical staff. A substitute or coach can therefore receive a card while off court.

A net fault, four contacts, overlap or illegal attack decides a rally under the playing rules; insulting an official or threatening an opponent is misconduct. Both decisions can arise from the same sequence, but one does not erase the other. FIVB Casebook 2024 case 6.5, for example, explains that pulling the net after a rally is over is not a technical net fault, although the first referee may still judge the behavior under Rule 21.

A yellow card is prevention, not a sanction

Rule 21.1 gives the first referee a two-stage preventive process. Stage 1 is a verbal warning through the game captain. Stage 2 is a yellow card addressed to the team member concerned. The yellow is recorded, but it has no immediate scoring or participation consequence.

The referee need not use both stages in every case. FIVB Casebook 2024 case 6.1 confirms that sufficiently serious minor misconduct can go directly to a yellow card. More serious conduct can go directly to red, expulsion or disqualification; a yellow is not a compulsory first step.

The conduct category sets the starting level

FIVB Rule 21.2 uses three defined categories. The exact classification is the first referee's judgment, based on the words, gesture, action, context and seriousness:

• Rude conduct: action contrary to good manners or moral principles.
• Offensive conduct: defamatory or insulting words or gestures, or an action expressing contempt.
• Aggression: an actual physical attack or aggressive or threatening behavior.

Those definitions matter more than whether a spectator considers the reaction “emotional.” Ordinary disappointment can be managed without a card; conduct crossing the Rule 21.2 threshold must follow the sanction scale.

Progression follows the same person, not the whole team

Rules 21.3-21.4 and Diagram 9 set this scale:

• Rude conduct: first occurrence by a team member = red-card penalty; second by that same member in the match = expulsion; third by that same member = disqualification.
• Offensive conduct: first occurrence by a team member = expulsion; second by that same member in the match = disqualification.
• Aggression: first occurrence = disqualification.

All misconduct sanctions are individual, remain in force for the entire match and are recorded. A rude-conduct penalty against one player does not make another player's first rude conduct an automatic expulsion. Conversely, the same person's progression is not reset when a new set begins.

Red alone changes the score and service

Under Rule 21.3.1, the first rude conduct in the match by a team member is penalized with a point and service to the opponent. If the opponent was receiving, it gains the point, rotates and serves next; if it was already serving, it gains the point and continues to serve. The penalty can therefore end a set if it supplies the point and two-point margin needed under Rule 6.2.

The offender is not removed merely because the card is red. “Red card” and “ejection” are not synonyms in this ruleset. Removal begins only with the red-and-yellow combinations.

Cards together remove the person for the set

Under Rule 21.3.2, red and yellow shown jointly mean expulsion. The first offensive conduct, or the second rude conduct by the same member in the match, produces this result without an additional point or service award. The expelled person must go to the team's dressing room until the current set ends.

An expelled player on court must be substituted immediately. An expelled coach loses the right to intervene for the rest of the set; under Rule 5.3.2, an assistant coach may assume the coach's functions during the absence after the game captain confirms the change to the referee. At the next set, an expelled person may ordinarily return, subject to the important exceptional-substitution rule below.

Cards apart remove the person for the match

Under Rule 21.3.3, red and yellow shown separately mean disqualification. It applies to the first aggression, the second offensive conduct by the same member, or the third rude conduct by the same member. No earlier warning or sanction is required before a first act of aggression is disqualified.

The disqualified person goes to the team's dressing room and cannot return during that match. If the person is a player on court, the team must replace that player immediately. The card itself does not award a point; any effect on the set comes from replacing the player or, if replacement is impossible, the incomplete-team rule.

Removal does not automatically leave five players

Rules 15.7-15.8 require an expelled or disqualified on-court player to be replaced first by a legal substitution. If that is impossible, the team may make an exceptional substitution beyond the normal Rule 15.6 limits, using an eligible player who was not on court at the time. The Libero, second Libero and their regular replacement player cannot be used for that exceptional substitution.

If neither a legal nor an exceptional substitution is possible, the team is declared incomplete. Under Rule 6.4.3 it loses the set or match; the opponent receives only the points and sets needed to win, while the incomplete team keeps the points and sets it had already won.

The Libero has a separate replacement route

Rule 19.5 says an expelled or disqualified Libero may be replaced immediately by the team's second Libero. If the team has only one Libero, it has the right to make a re-designation under Rule 19.4. This is not the same as putting a Libero into a front-row player's position through an exceptional substitution.

The sanctioned Libero's personal consequence remains unchanged: set-only absence for expulsion, match-long absence for disqualification, and any additional restriction that follows from the applicable re-designation provisions.

Misconduct can be dealt with outside a rally

A card does not require a live ball. Misconduct may occur during an interruption, after a rally, before the first set or between sets. Rule 21.5 says misconduct before or between sets is classified under the same sanction scale and applied in the following set.

The FIVB Refereeing Guidelines and Instructions 2024 direct the first referee to administer a between-set penalty at the start of the next set. They also state that serious misconduct may require a whistle as soon as possible even during play. The scorer records misconduct warnings and sanctions so that the personal progression is preserved through the match.

The first referee classifies and sanctions

The first referee decides whether conduct is minor, rude, offensive or aggressive and applies the corresponding card. Other officials can report what they observed, while the scorer records the warning or sanction. The 2024 FIVB Refereeing Guidelines say that if the scorer identifies a card inconsistent with the sanction scale, the information is relayed through the second referee so the first referee can correct the decision.

Under the standard Rule 5.1.2 procedure, only the game captain may ask the referees for an explanation while the ball is out of play and may reserve a rules protest. That procedure is not an invitation to re-argue the referee's factual judgment, and continued insulting or aggressive protest can itself become misconduct.

Some FIVB events allow limited coach clarification

An FIVB notice dated 27 February 2026 introduced tests for the 2026 Volleyball Nations League, FIVB U17 World Championships and 2026 Continental Championships. In those competitions, the head coach may approach the first referee to clarify or confirm a challenge request or seek clarification of a call or decision; complaints and protests remain prohibited.

This is a competition-specific communication procedure, not a change to Rule 21's yellow/red/expulsion/disqualification scale. Outside the named test events, use the standard captain-only rule unless the appointed competition regulations say otherwise.

A first incident is insulting, not merely rude

Situation: a player with no earlier warning directs an insulting gesture at an official. The first referee classifies it as offensive conduct.

FIVB 2025-2028 ruling: expulsion—red and yellow jointly—for the rest of the set under Rules 21.2.2 and 21.3.2.2. No yellow warning and no prior red penalty are required, and the expulsion itself adds no point. The decisive fact is the offensive classification, not the player's clean record.

An expelled starter has no ordinary substitute

Situation: an on-court player is expelled, and the team cannot make a legal substitution under the normal limits. One eligible bench player was not on court when the sanction occurred.

FIVB 2025-2028 ruling: Rule 15.7 permits that eligible player to enter exceptionally. The team continues with six, but the expelled player may not return later in the match because an exceptional substitution was used. If no eligible player existed, Rule 15.8 would make the team incomplete.

A red penalty occurs between sets

Situation: between sets, a member of the team due to serve first commits rude conduct and receives a red-card penalty.

FIVB ruling: Rule 21.5 applies the sanction in the next set. FIVB Casebook 2024 case 6.4 explains that the opponent begins with one point, rotates and serves. The misconduct occurred before the set's first rally, but the point-and-service consequence still applies to that set.

Two different people commit rude conduct

Situation: player 4 has already received a red penalty for rude conduct. Later, player 9 commits that player's first rude conduct of the match.

FIVB 2025-2028 ruling: player 9 also receives a red penalty, not an expulsion. Rule 21.4 makes misconduct sanctions individual and progressive for the same member. Player 4's next rude conduct would be an expulsion; it does not advance player 9's personal ladder.

How to analyze a volleyball card

1. Name the ruleset and competition. Confirm FIVB indoor 2025-2028 or the appointed alternative code.
2. Separate the rally decision from conduct. Identify any playing fault independently.
3. Identify the person. Cards and progressive sanctions belong to individual team members.
4. Classify the behavior. Minor, rude, offensive or aggression determines the entry point.
5. Check that person's match record. The same person's repeated rude or offensive conduct escalates.
6. Apply the card effect. Warning, point and service, set expulsion or match disqualification.
7. If an on-court player leaves, solve replacement. Legal substitution, exceptional substitution, then incomplete team.
8. Check separate regulations. Competition reporting or later discipline may supplement the match ruling.

Delay cards are not misconduct cards

FIVB Rule 16 uses yellow and red cards with the delay hand signal for team delay warnings and penalties. A first team delay is a warning; the second and later team delays are faults giving a point and service to the opponent. Those are team sanctions, separate from the individual misconduct record in Rule 21.

For that process, see timeout and delay sanction rules. The referee's hand signal and the scoresheet entry distinguish a delay card from a misconduct card.

Match removal is not the final disciplinary decision

The Rule 21 phrase “with no other consequences” describes the immediate playing-rule effect of expulsion or disqualification: neither sanction automatically adds a point. It does not guarantee that the conduct has no consequences after the match.

For FIVB jurisdiction, the FIVB Disciplinary Regulations 2023, version 23 June 2023, Articles 4 and 8 provide a separate process for violent physical misconduct and unsportsmanlike conduct, taking account of sanctions already imposed under the Official Rules. Possible later measures include a fine, suspension or exclusion. Domestic and event organizers use their own applicable disciplinary regulations.

Claims that produce the wrong ruling

• “Yellow gives the opponent a point.” Not for FIVB misconduct; yellow is a formal warning.
• “A red card ejects the player.” Red alone is the point-and-service penalty.
• “Expulsion and disqualification are the same.” Expulsion lasts through the set; disqualification lasts through the match.
• “The referee must warn first.” Offensive conduct and aggression can start at expulsion or disqualification.
• “The team always plays with five after a removal.” An on-court player must be replaced legally or exceptionally if possible.
• “A new set clears earlier misconduct.” Individual sanctions and progression remain in force for the match.
• “An in-match card fixes the later suspension.” Later discipline is a separate competition process.

Governing-body sources and effective versions

• FIVB — Official Volleyball Rules 2025-2028, Rules 4.1, 5.1, 6.4, 15.7-15.8, 19.5 and 20-21; Diagram 9
• FIVB — Official Volleyball Rules hub, current 2025-2028 edition
• FIVB — Volleyball Casebook 2024, cases 6.1 and 6.4-6.11
• FIVB — Refereeing Guidelines and Instructions 2024, Rules 15 and 20-21 guidance
• FIVB — Board-approved rule tests for named 2026 competitions, 27 February 2026
• FIVB — Disciplinary Regulations 2023, version 23 June 2023, Articles 4 and 8
• FIVB — Constitution and Regulations register, current in-force document list

Checked on 28 August 2026 against the FIVB 2025-2028 indoor rulebook, the indoor Casebook and Refereeing Guidelines currently listed by FIVB, the 2026 competition-test notice and the FIVB legal register. The 2024 interpretive documents predate the 2025-2028 edition; they are used here only where the relevant Rule 21 procedure remains consistent with the current text. Specific competition handbooks and national rules may supplement or replace this baseline.