PASSIVITY (UTF) RULE – CLARIFICATION FOR DOMESTIC COMPETITIONS

Domestic competitions seeded from official BF rankings must use the initial seeded list order to determine the winner in the event of an equal score P-black. Other domestic competitions are encouraged to use the seeding into the initial DE tableau (after one or more poules). 

In December 2022 the FIE Congress approved changes to the passivity/non combativity rules (FIE Technical Rulebook – t.124) which came into effect on 1st January 2023.

All official BF ranking competitions (from 1st March 2023) must use the new passivity rule.

Clarifications as follows:

The FIE rule states “If the fencers are equal and receive P-black cards simultaneously, the fencer with the higher FIE ranking wins the bout.”

For domestic competitions seeded using an official BF ranking list:

“If the fencers are equal and receive P-black cards simultaneously, the fencer with the higher BF ranking wins the bout”

What happens if two fencers are unranked eg ‘999’?  Before poules are drawn, fencers are listed, according to seeding. ‘999’s are put into an order, and this is the order that should be used. The list should be published (this is standard practice where competition software is used)

For domestic competitions not seeded using an official BF ranking list (which includes all domestic team competitions, as there is no official BF team ranking list): Competition organisers are encouraged to use the seeded list going into the DE tableau:

“If the fencers/teams are equal and receive P-black cards simultaneously, the fencer with the highest ranking on the list used to draw the initial DE tableau wins the bout”.

Competition organisers can continue to create this seeded list from the results of one or more rounds of poules.

Organisers of domestic competitions not seeded using an official BF ranking list are expected to make it clear to the referees and participants which seeded list will be used in the event of an equal score P-black being awarded.

BF Rules Committee

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