Governance

By participating within the YBL you agree to follow all regulations and policies set out by the league, including the current League Regulations, Fixtures Policy and Game Addendums for each division.

By entering a team, you are committing to play that team with an appropriate coach and infrastructure around that team. It is you ‘the club’, that is responsible for checking the Game Addendum for the division you have entered. 

These regulations apply to all our leagues and competitions. Our regulations are based on current Basketball England and/or FIBA regulations unless stated otherwise within these regulations.  All participants must be registered and licensed in accordance with current Basketball England policies.

The YBL require a Club Secretary for each CLUB. This is listed inside the League Handbook and is available to all clubs under a password protected document.  You are required to have a valid email and contact mobile number for your nominated club secretary and to inform the YBL of any changes.

The club secretary is responsible for sharing information given from us to your club members.

It is mandatory for each CLUB to have a Welfare Officer as stipulated by Basketball England; this information is kept by our Compliance Director .

A Director/Chair and Club Secretary cannot hold the same position within another club to avoid any conflict of interest (BE Rule 6.4).

Any questions from coaches or team managers that require any action must be emailed to the YBL by the club secretary.

We will hold your Club Secretaries data on our secure systems which will only be accessed by YBL staff, and shared with Basketball England and other clubs as necessary.

Email for correspondence with the YBL is by email to info@YBL.org.uk

Level 1 Club Mark

If your club has three or more teams, you must be registered with Basketball England as a Level 1 Club. 

Safeguarding & Compliance

All referrals for safeguarding must be sent to k.accalia@ybl.org.uk only and marked ‘Private and Confidential’. 

Affiliation for Clubs and Teams

The YBL will require all participating clubs to accept their invitation to participate and create their teams meeting the deadline set for that season. If this is not completed before fixtures have been produced, charges will apply for ‘late-entry’ (See Fixtures Policy).

YBL Legal Information

The YBL (also known as Your Basketball League or Youth Basketball League) is registered in England and Wales. Company Number 10776305. Birmingham. Copyright © 2026. All rights reserved. Permission is granted for any club participating in YBL leagues to use the YBL logo on their playing kit and on the club website to link to the YBL. If you wish to use the YBL logo for any other purpose, board approval is required. Any material produced by the YBL is for development purposes and can only be used for this purpose. If you wish to copy any such material, please obtain the Board of Directors approval. 

Supporting the YBL -

@ybl@official

It is a requirement that each club has a YBL logo on their website which links to the YBL. This link allows your players and supporters to see important updates and information. Sharing good news stories and tagging the YBL in on your social posts helps boost your interactive profile.

Definition of a National League Player

YBL classification of a National League Player is when they hold a Performance licence at any level of the game. A Performance licence is valid from point of purchase until 31st August for that season.

Individual Licensing

All individual participants must be correctly licensed with Basketball England.

Individuals must be attached to a club and placed within a team(s) in PlayHQ to participate within the YBL.

You can register as many players for a team as you wish, however, each division (Grade), will only let you play the maximum allowed in each game.

Players, coaches and team managers, must be assigned into a team on their club portal to be registered with YBL.

All officials and volunteers must register through the YBL.

The YBL does not require any player forms or registrations to be sent to the league, all players, coach, bench (team managers) and staff registrations can be checked on the PlayHQ portal.

All players participating in any YBL league or competition will require a Participant licence.

A player with a Performance licence must hold a Participant licence to play in the YBL Performance licences are not accepted in YBL competitions as you cannot register to a YBL team with this type of licence (there is no additional cost for the Participant licence. 

Please see the Game Addendum booklet for game eligibility. Ignorance of this rule is not a mitigating circumstance for eligibility. 

Ignorance of this rule is not a mitigating circumstance for eligibility. 

Individual Licensing & Membership (BE Rule 17)

17.12.1  - Before each Match, the Club must present to the Opposing Team, if requested, the licence cards of all participants who are to compete in the Match. In addition, the licence cards of any Accompanying Delegation members must also be present for inspection. This can be done by either presenting the individual licences on a device, showing the Team ID page on HoopsHQ or printing the licences page off (in colour).

17.12.2  - Any disputes over the eligibility of a player/coach/bench personnel should be raised with the Crew Chief who has the final say on participation in the match (this cannot be done retrospectively).

17.12.3  - Teams should review the licence cards and accept the licence of the individual as proof of eligibility. Should any challenge be made to the validity of such licences, the captain should sign the scoresheet under protest and follow the protest procedure (in-line with YBL Game Regulations 2026).

17.12.4  - Before each Match, all Officials must present their licence card if requested by the teams involved. 

17.12.6 - In the event of a valid licence not being produced for a Player, Coach or Bench Personnel that person shall not be permitted to participate in the Match in question. 

Ignorance of this rule is not a mitigating circumstance for eligibility. 

Player Eligibility for Finals

Cup & Championship Finals

PLAYERS MUST affiliate to the participating team, either league and/or cup competition, prior to the ‘new player deadline'.

Player Transfers Club to Club

Player transfer during the season is permitted and must be prior to the ‘New Player Deadline”. Players initiate the process in their own PlayHQ portal and their home club receives a notification requesting the transfer which must be completed within 7 days or will automatically be approved. After 7 days the new club are notified and need to accept the player transfer. The YBL are notified at this stage and have final approval.

Playing for multiple teams within the same club

A player within a club that is eligible for participation in more than one league/competition, will need to be placed in all of the teams they play for in PlayHQ. It is your responsibility as a club to make sure they are eligible to participate. Ignorance of this rule is not a mitigating circumstance for eligibility and will result in sanctions.

Player Exemptions & Waivers

The YBL will consider Player Exemption Requests from Club Secretaries only, on a case-by-case basis, where the division allows it. To start this process, you must complete the Exemption Request Form.


Players wishing to play up would also require a Permission Waiver to be completed.

Licencing Sanctions

Abuse of our rules will be investigated and will result in sanctions or penalties.

Up to £100.00 per-person
Not registered with active green licence

Including; Using a ‘FILL-IN’ player in E-Scoring that is not correctly registered with a Green Participant Licence. A coach or bench person not correctly registered with a Green Licence.

Up to £200.00 per-person
Using a performance licence holder

Using a Performance licence holder in a competition where it is not permitted. Automatic default win to the opposing team.

In-Game Coaching
(Level 1 or above)

For all games under the jurisdiction of the YBL

The YBL has been given permission by Basketball England to authorise Level 1 coaches to participate in YBL leagues as follows:

L1 Coach aged 18 years or above may coach any YBL games unsupervised on condition they meet criteria (A) (B) and (C) below.

L1 Coach aged under 18 years of age may coach any YBL games when supervised (in the room when training and bench-side while in games), by a L2 coach on condition they both meet criteria (A) (B) and (C).

(A) must hold a completed coaching qualification

(B) holds an ‘active’ coaching licence via Basketball England on PlayHQ

(C) registered on PlayHQ via the YBL link.

No YBL game with junior players may start until the above criteria is met.

In a game where the coach is disqualified and there are junior players participating, the game cannot continue unless the assistant coach (details must be listed in E-Scoring, before the game commences), meets the above criteria. The game MUST be abandoned. The opposing team will be awarded the game. This will then be referred to the YBL Board of Directors for review.

The YBL will be actively reviewing the L1 coaching arrangement with clubs who are utilising L1 coaches within YBL leagues. We will provide learning and feedback to Basketball England. Remember that Safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility. Please see the Basketball England Code of Ethics and Conduct and Safeguarding policy for more information. These can be found in the Club-Admin and Safeguarding Pages on our website.

No Coach can be licensed for two Clubs that compete in the same league or competition for example U15’s.

Remember that Safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility.

Full Court Press & Zone Defence

This sanction is applied to YBL divisions where Zone defense is limited or not permitted and a team is pressing full court when the are leading by 20 points or more. 

The crew chief will call an ‘officials time out’ with coaches and their co-official to the centre circle and give a verbal warning that they must cease playing a zone defence or a full court press, (whichever is applied at the time) and to remind the coach(es) of the potential sanctions that will then be applied.

The coaches will then be given an additional 30 seconds to reinforce this message with their team.

Once play has resumed following the ‘officials time out’ any further breaches of the rule will result in the coach being issued a bench (B) technical foul. The opposition will be given one free throw and then play will resume.

Any further breaches of these rules will result in the coach receiving further bench technical fouls recorded as ‘B’. The opposition will be awarded one free throw.

A coach will not be ejected until they have received three Bench technical fouls ‘B’s on a scoresheet. 

Restricted divisions

Illegally playing a zone defence or a full court is not permitted in the following divisions for 2026/2027 Season

Under 9 (CVL) Divisions
Under 11 (CVL) Divisions
Under 13 Zonal Divisions
Under 13 All-Girls Divisions
Under 14: The Challenge Cup
Under 15 Zonal Divisions
Under 15 All-Girls

Basketball England’s regulations regarding their Code of Conduct as updated for the 2026/2027 Season applies to all YBL competitions.

Also see Basketball England rules; 49.8, 49.8.1 & 49.8.2

Financial sanctions for junior players will be at the discretion of the Board of Directors. Repeat infractions will result in club sanctions.

Basketball England’s Disciplinary Panel/Safeguarding Panel will be informed of all incidents that meet their threshold for referral.

One Game Suspension

General Improper Conduct
Including leaving the bench area during a fight situation.

Unsportsmanlike Conduct

Verbal Abuse 1
Obscene/Foul Language

Violent Conduct 1
Physical retaliation

Two Game Suspension

Verbal Abuse 2
Obscene/Foul Language

Minimum Two Game Suspension

Violent Conduct 2
Pre-meditated physical violance

Verbal Abuse 3
Continuous and aggressive abuse

Minimum Three Game Suspension

Violent Conduct 3
Continuous violent behaviour and physical violence

Protest

A) an error in scorekeeping, timekeeping or shot clock operating that was reported and not corrected.

B) a decision to cancel, postpone, or not resume or not play a game.

C) a violation of eligibility and licence rules.

Procedure for Protest

1) Inform the scorer and crew chief straight after the buzzer at the end of the game that you intent to protest.  You have 15 minutes from the game finishing to decide to protest.

2) Have the team captain (coach with captain if a junior game), watch the crew chief write PROTEST in their signature box. Either HOME or AWAY depending on the team protesting.

3) The protesting team, must send within 72 hours their report of the game finishing with a full explanation of the protest, with any evidence, to info@ybl.org.uk.

4) The protesting team must send in the administration fee, before the 72 hours lapse for your protest to be heard (72 hours after the timestamp on PlayHQ as when the game has finished).

Per-Protest

£100.00 per-protest within 72 hours
Fees will be returned if the protest goes in your favour.

Send your appeal fee to;
Your Basketball League C.I.C. - Lloyds Bank
Sort-Code: 30-96-12
Account number: 63680668

To appeal any decision you must reply within 48 hours, unless otherwise stated.

Email your appeal via email to k.accalia@ybl.org.uk within 48 hours as dated on the email from the decision being made (date and time of email). Within your email you must provide your written appeal and grounds, together with any supporting information, reports, videos or evidence.

If you are appealing a Exemption decision, it is highly unlikely that it will be changed. 

Per-Appeal

£100.00 per-protest within 48 hours
Fees will be returned if the protest goes in your favour.

Send your appeal fee to;
Your Basketball League C.I.C. - Lloyds Bank
Sort-Code: 30-96-12
Account number: 63680668

Last updated (layout)

Tuesday 29 September 2026