# Law 15: Interruptions (FIVB Official Volleyball Rules)

Volleyball · Law 15: Interruptions · Insporta Book (https://book.insporta.app/volleyball/laws/law-15-interruptions/)

Time-outs and substitutions: how many, in what order and who may request them, the limits on substitutions, exceptional and illegal substitutions, the substitution procedure, and improper requests.

## 15.151 Time-outs and Requests

The regular interruptions, their number and order, who may request them, and how time-outs work.

### Test 1: Time-outs and the order of requests

- The only regular interruptions are time-outs and substitutions. (Source: FIVB OVR 2025-2028, Rule 15)
- Each team may request at most two time-outs and six substitutions in a set. (Source: FIVB OVR 2025-2028, Rule 15.1)
- All requested time-outs last 30 seconds; at top events the FIVB may approve another length. (Source: FIVB OVR 2025-2028, Rule 15.4.1)
- In every time-out the players in play go to the free zone near their bench. (Source: FIVB OVR 2025-2028, Rule 15.4.2)
- Only the coach may request them, or in the coach's absence the assistant coach or the game captain. (Source: FIVB OVR 2025-2028, Rule 15.3.1)
- A time-out is asked for with the hand signal while the ball is out of play and before the whistle for service. (Source: FIVB OVR 2025-2028, Rule 15.4.1)
- At the top level the buzzer and then the hand signal are obligatory. (Source: FIVB OVR 2025-2028, Rule 15.4.1)
- Both time-outs are gone and four of the six substitutions are used, leaving two substitutions. (Source: FIVB OVR 2025-2028, Rule 15.1)
- One or two time-outs and one substitution request may follow one another in the same interruption. (Source: FIVB OVR 2025-2028, Rule 15.2.1; Casebook 2024 4.28)
- A third time-out is improper, but once it has actually delayed the game it is curtailed and sanctioned as a delay. (Source: FIVB OVR 2025-2028, Rule 15.11.1.4; Casebook 2024 4.29)

## 15.152 Substitution Limits

What a substitution is, how often starters and substitutes may change, and the limits in match situations.

### Test 1: Who may come on, and how often

- A player other than the Libero or his replacement player enters, after being recorded, to take another player's position. (Source: FIVB OVR 2025-2028, Rule 15.5.1)
- A starter may leave once and re-enter once per set, only to his previous position in the line-up. (Source: FIVB OVR 2025-2028, Rule 15.6.1)
- A substitute can only be substituted by the starting player he replaced. (Source: FIVB OVR 2025-2028, Rule 15.6.2)
- A substitute may enter in place of a starter only once per set. (Source: FIVB OVR 2025-2028, Rule 15.6.2)
- Two or more players may be substituted at the same time within the same request. (Source: FIVB OVR 2025-2028, Rule 15.2.2)
- Separate substitution requests by the same team need a completed rally in between, injury and expulsion cases apart. (Source: FIVB OVR 2025-2028, Rule 15.2.3)
- A substitution before the start of a set is allowed and is recorded as a regular one in that set. (Source: FIVB OVR 2025-2028, Rule 15.3.2; Casebook 2024 4.12)
- No. 12 came on for No. 5, so only No. 5 may replace him, returning to his own position. (Source: FIVB OVR 2025-2028, Rule 15.6)
- A starter may leave once and come back once, after which no further substitution involving him is possible. (Source: FIVB OVR 2025-2028, Rule 15.6.1)
- Two substitution requests by the same team must be separated by a completed rally. (Source: FIVB OVR 2025-2028, Rule 15.2.3)

### Test 2: Substitution limits in match situations

- Only one substitution remains, so the coach picks one and the other is rejected as an improper request. (Source: FIVB OVR 2025-2028, Rule 15.1, 15.11; Casebook 2024 4.14)
- The legal substitution is granted, and the illegal one is rejected with a delay sanction. (Source: FIVB OVR 2025-2028, Rule 15.10.4; Casebook 2024 4.15)
- Leaving once and returning once uses up the starter's substitutions for the set. (Source: FIVB OVR 2025-2028, Rule 15.6.1)
- The pairing is fixed: a substitute can only be replaced by the starter he came on for. (Source: FIVB OVR 2025-2028, Rule 15.6.2, 15.9.1)
- Two time-outs may be taken in one interruption, but two substitution requests may not. (Source: FIVB OVR 2025-2028, Rule 15.11.1.3; Casebook 2024 4.28)
- After a rejected request sanctioned by a delay warning, no regular interruption may be requested in the same interruption. (Source: FIVB OVR 2025-2028, Rule 15.2.4; Casebook 2024 4.30.1)
- The request starts when a substitute enters the zone, so only that player's substitution is part of it. (Source: FIVB OVR 2025-2028, Rule 15.10.3.1; Casebook 2024 4.2)
- A second substitution in the same interruption is improper even after a time-out; the others are legal. (Source: FIVB OVR 2025-2028, Rule 15.2, 15.7, 15.11.1.3; Casebook 2024 4.9, 4.28)
- Without delay, the extra request is simply rejected as improper and written on the score sheet. (Source: FIVB OVR 2025-2028, Rule 15.11; Casebook 2024 4.14)
- With six per set, they have four, two and none left. (Source: FIVB OVR 2025-2028, Rule 15.1)

## 15.153 Exceptional and Illegal Substitutions

Substituting an injured or expelled player beyond the limits, an incomplete team, and correcting an illegal substitution.

### Test 1: Exceptional and illegal substitutions

- An exceptional substitution is allowed when a player cannot go on through injury, illness, expulsion or disqualification and no legal one is possible. (Source: FIVB OVR 2025-2028, Rule 15.7)
- Any player not on court at that moment may enter, except the Libero, the second Libero and their regular replacement player. (Source: FIVB OVR 2025-2028, Rule 15.7)
- The player replaced exceptionally may not re-enter the match. (Source: FIVB OVR 2025-2028, Rule 15.7)
- It is never counted as a regular substitution but is recorded as part of the total for the set and match. (Source: FIVB OVR 2025-2028, Rule 15.7)
- Legal substitution first, then exceptional; if neither is possible the team is incomplete. (Source: FIVB OVR 2025-2028, Rule 15.8)
- A substitution is illegal if it exceeds the limits of Rule 15.6, outside the exceptional case, or involves an unregistered player. (Source: FIVB OVR 2025-2028, Rule 15.9.1)
- He may substitute exceptionally, and the expelled player cannot return, or accept that the team is incomplete for that set. (Source: FIVB OVR 2025-2028, Rule 15.8; Casebook 2024 4.11)
- Team A's points since the fault are cancelled, team B keeps its 16 and gains a point and the service. (Source: FIVB OVR 2025-2028, Rule 15.9.2)
- Rule 15.9.2 sets the order: the penalty, the correction, then the cancellation of points. (Source: FIVB OVR 2025-2028, Rule 15.9.2)
- Only when a legal substitution is impossible may the team substitute exceptionally, and only then is it incomplete. (Source: FIVB OVR 2025-2028, Rule 15.8)

## 15.154 Procedure and Improper Requests

The substitution zone, when a request starts, who authorises it, and how improper requests are treated.

### Test 1: Substitution procedure and improper requests

- Substitutions take place within the substitution zone. (Source: FIVB OVR 2025-2028, Rule 15.10.1)
- Entering the substitution zone ready to play, during an interruption, is the request itself. (Source: FIVB OVR 2025-2028, Rule 15.10.3.1)
- Otherwise no hand signal is needed: entering the zone is the request. (Source: FIVB OVR 2025-2028, Rule 15.10.3.1)
- If the player is not ready at the moment of the request, it is not granted and the team is sanctioned for delay. (Source: FIVB OVR 2025-2028, Rule 15.10.3.2)
- The scorer or the 2nd referee acknowledges the request by buzzer or whistle, and the 2nd referee authorises it. (Source: FIVB OVR 2025-2028, Rule 15.10.3.3)
- Requests during a rally or at or after the whistle to serve are improper. (Source: FIVB OVR 2025-2028, Rule 15.11.1.1)
- The first such request is rejected and noted on the score sheet without other consequences; later ones are delays. (Source: FIVB OVR 2025-2028, Rule 15.11.2, 15.11.3)
- C is the substitution zone between the attack-line extensions by the scorer's table; A is a warm-up area, B the Libero Replacement zone, D behind the end line. (Source: FIVB OVR 2025-2028, Rule 1.4.3, 15.10.1)
- Entering the zone makes the request, which is acknowledged, authorised and then carried out and recorded. (Source: FIVB OVR 2025-2028, Rule 15.10)
- All substitutes must enter together to be in the same request, and the changes are made one pair after another. (Source: FIVB OVR 2025-2028, Rule 15.10.4)

Sources: FIVB Official Volleyball Rules 2025-2028, Rule 15 (paraphrased in original wording; original questions authored from the Rules, not reproduced)

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