How to fill in a FIBA basketball scoresheet: the running score, fouls and the 2026 markings

What changed on the scoresheet on 1 October 2026

FIBA's Official Basketball Rules 2026 came into force worldwide on 1 October 2026, and they changed the scoresheet more than any edition in years. The unsportsmanlike foul is gone, replaced by a disruptive foul and a flagrant foul (Articles 37 and 38). Technical fouls are split into two categories, and only category 1 counts towards disqualification (Article 36). The sheet follows a new principle: any foul counting towards game disqualification (GD) is entered with a circle (B.8.3). This guide follows the 2026 rules, Appendix B; the numbers in brackets, B.10.3 and so on, are its paragraphs.

The disqualification count changed with the letters. Under the 2024 rules a player was disqualified for two technical fouls, two unsportsmanlike fouls, or one of each. Now it is two circled player fouls: two category 1 technicals, two flagrants, or one of each (Article 41.4). A player can have a plain T, two DIs and a circled T and still be playing, as long as the five-foul limit has not been reached. The 2024 marks are the ones in FIBA's 2024 Interpretations, which record an unsportsmanlike foul with free throws as "U2".

The article numbers moved too: the five-foul limit is now Article 41 and team fouls Article 42, because the two new fouls took 37 and 38. A scorer's crib sheet from before October 2026 has the wrong letters and the wrong numbers.

Before the game: teams, players and the small x

The scorer prepares the sheet at least 40 minutes before the start (B.3). Team A is the home team, or the first team named in the schedule at a tournament or neutral venue, and takes the upper half of the sheet; team B the lower half (B.3.1, B.3.3). Enter the competition, game number, date, time, place and the names and nationalities of the crew chief and umpires.

For each team, write the last three digits of each licence, then the players' names in block capitals in shirt-number order, with (CAP) after the captain's name (B.3.3.2). If a team has fewer than 12 players, rule a line through the unused rows (B.3.3.3). Enter the head coach and first assistant coach at the bottom of the team's section, and the scorer, assistant scorer, timer and shot clock operator at the bottom of the sheet.

At least 10 minutes before the start, each head coach confirms the names and numbers, enters a small x in the "Player in" column beside the five starters, and signs, team A's coach first (B.4). When the game starts, the scorer circles those five x's (B.5). Every substitute gets a small x, not circled, the first time they enter as a player (B.6), so at the end the column shows who started and who played.

The running score: lines, dots and circled numbers

The running score is the chronological record of every point (B.10.1). It has four main columns of four, with team A's two narrow columns on the left, team B's on the right, and the numbers 1 to 160 down the centre (B.10.3). For each score:

• draw a diagonal line through the new total the team has reached for a field goal, / if you are right-handed or \ if left-handed, or a filled dot for a free throw;
• write the shirt number of the scorer in the blank space beside it, on the same side.

A 3-point goal is shown by circling the player's number (B.11.1). A goal scored in a team's own basket is credited to the captain of the opponents on the court (B.11.2). Points given for goaltending or interference, when the ball does not go in, are credited to the player who shot (B.11.3).

The scorer uses two pens: red for the first and third quarters, blue or black for the second and fourth and for every overtime (B.2, note 1). At the end of each quarter, draw a thick circle around each team's last total and a thick line under it and under the number of the player who scored it (B.11.4), then carry on from there in the next quarter.

Check the running score against the scoreboard whenever you can. If the scoreboard is wrong and the sheet is right, have the scoreboard corrected at once; if a team objects, tell the crew chief at the next dead ball with the clock stopped (B.11.6). If the two cannot be reconciled, the scoresheet takes precedence and the scoreboard is corrected to match it (Article 49.2). The referees may correct a scorekeeping error under the rules, and the crew chief signs the correction (B.11.7).

Fouls: the letters, the circles and the free-throw numbers

Every foul by a player is entered against that player, in the next of their five foul spaces (B.8.1). Fouls by the head coach, the first assistant coach, substitutes, excluded players and delegation members are entered against the head coach (B.8.2). Three rules apply to every entry:

1. A foul that counts towards game disqualification is circled (B.8.3).
2. A foul that gave free throws has the number, 1, 2 or 3, written small beside the letter: P2, DI2, FL1 (B.8.4).
3. A foul cancelled against an equal penalty under Article 43 gets a small c instead: Pc (B.8.5).

A player's second circled foul is followed by GD, game disqualification, in the next space, and the timer raises the GD marker (B.8.6.4, B.8.6.9, B.8.6.10; Article 41.4). Every kind of player foul fills a space, so a P, a plain T, a DI, a circled FL and a P is five fouls and the player must leave (Article 41.1), even though only one of them counted towards GD.

FIBA's own example sheet in the 2026 rules (Diagram 12) shows the new logic in four rows:

No. 33 is the row a scorer used to the old rules gets wrong. Under the 2024 rules that player would have been disqualified at the second T; under the 2026 rules the second T was category 2, so play went on until the third.

The head coach's column

A technical foul for the head coach's own behaviour is a circled C; two disqualify, and the second is followed by GD (B.8.6.5). A technical for anyone else on the bench, the assistant, substitutes, excluded players, is a circled B, and a disqualifying foul by an accompanying delegation member is a circled BD (B.8.6.6, B.8.6.14). Three of these together, all B or BD, or two of them and one C, disqualify the head coach (Article 41.5). In a fight, a disqualified person's remaining spaces are filled with F (B.8.6.18). None of the coach's technical fouls is a team foul (Article 36.3.1).

Team fouls: four boxes a quarter

Under each team's name there are four boxes for each quarter (B.9.1). Every personal, technical, disruptive, flagrant or disqualifying foul by a player gets a large X in the next box (B.9.2). After four, the team is in the team foul penalty: from then on, every personal foul on a player not in the act of shooting gives two free throws instead of a throw-in, unless the foul is by the team in control of the ball (Articles 42.1.1 and 42.2). There is no box for the fifth foul and after; the penalty is the point, and the timer turns the team-foul marker fully red once the ball is live again after the fourth (Article 50.1).

Fouls in an interval of play count in the following quarter, and all overtime fouls count as fourth-quarter fouls (Articles 42.1.2 and 42.1.3), so a team that ended the fourth quarter in the penalty starts overtime in it. At the end of each quarter, cancel the unused boxes with two parallel lines (B.9.3).

Time-outs and the head coach's challenge

A time-out is written as the minute of playing time of the quarter in which it was granted, counted up from the start of the quarter, in the next box: two boxes beside H1 for the first half, three beside H2 for the second half, and one for each overtime beside OT (B.7.1; Article 18.2.5). FIBA's own example sheet has a first-half time-out in minute 7 and second-half time-outs in minutes 9 and 10.

The second-half limit has its own mark. If a team has not taken a time-out before the clock shows 2:00 in the fourth quarter, the scorer draws two lines in its first second-half box, because only two of the three can now be used (B.7.2). FIBA's example sheet shows exactly that: two lines in the first H2 box, then the minutes 9 and 10. Where the instant replay system is used, a granted head coach's challenge is entered beside HCC: the quarter (Q1 to Q4 or OT) in the first box and the minute in the second; an unused challenge is cancelled with two lines at the end (B.13).

Ending the quarter and the game

At half-time, draw a thick line between the used and unused foul spaces of every player and coach (B.8.7). At the end of each quarter and the last overtime, enter the quarter's score in the summary at the bottom of the sheet (B.12.1). At the end of the game:

1. write the time in "Game ended at (hh:mm)" (B.12.2);
2. draw two thick lines under each team's final total and the number of the last scorer, and a diagonal line to the bottom of the column through the unused numbers (B.12.3);
3. cancel each player's unused foul spaces with a thick horizontal line (B.8.7);
4. enter the final score and the winning team (B.12.4);
5. the table officials sign, then the umpires, and the crew chief signs last, which ends the referees' connection with the game (B.12.5, B.12.6).

If a team protests, its captain signs in the "Captain's signature in case of protest" box within 15 minutes of the end, and the table officials stay available to the crew chief (B.12, note; Appendix C).

Where the ranking guides fall short

Every guide that ranked for this question when we checked on 22 October 2026 predates the 2026 rules. The basketballforcoaches.com score sheet page links a 2019 FIBA sheet and says only to mark a foul "down next to them", with no letters at all. The rest of the results were a scribd upload, fillable form sites, club PDFs and a "printable" page on a hijacked domain. FIBA's newest Table Officials Manual is still the one built on the 2024 rules. What a 2024 crib sheet tells a scorer, against the 2026 Appendix B:

Two older points still catch scorers out. The running score is the record, checked against the scoreboard as you go (B.11.6), so the sheet is not totalled from the players' points afterwards. And the summary of rule changes FIBA published in June 2026 lists only the new markings; the full list, with the head coach's entries in a fight, is in Appendix B of the rules themselves (B.8.6), which is the text to follow.

This guide covers the FIBA scoresheet used in FIBA competitions and by the many national federations that adopt it. The NBA, US college basketball and US high schools keep their own scorebooks with different marks, and a competition may adapt the FIBA sheet in its own regulations. Simple Online Counter is a free, browser-based set of counters, and its basketball score counter keeps the score and each team's fouls with the penalty for FIBA, NBA, NCAA and high school rules; it is a way to check the table, not a replacement for the official scoresheet.