Section 7: Violations & Penalties
7.1 Penalty Card System
The FIE uses a structured card system to penalize infractions (Technical Rules t.144–170). Cards accumulate within a single bout and carry over across bouts in a team match:
- Yellow Card: A formal warning with no immediate scoring consequence.
- Red Card: A penalty touch is awarded to the opponent. Red cards are issued for repeat 1st-group offenses or immediately for 2nd-group offenses.
- Black Card: Immediate expulsion from the competition. Black cards are reserved for the most serious infractions (3rd and 4th groups).
7.2 Offense Groups
- 1st Group: Covering valid target with the non-weapon hand or arm (Technical Rules t.29.1); turning one's back to the opponent during a phrase (t.27.2); causing corps à corps intentionally or jostling the opponent (t.25.2); crossing the lateral boundaries of the piste (t.35); appearing with non-regulation equipment (t.71).
- 2nd Group: Substituting a non-valid part of the target for a valid part (t.29.2); making contact with electrical equipment using the non-sword hand (t.29.3); intentionally causing the apparatus to register a hit on a surface other than the opponent (t.55.2); intentionally dropping the weapon during the fencing phrase (t.56.11).
- 3rd Group: Disturbing order on the piste, including by spectators (t.109, t.133); insulting or threatening an official (t.109); smoking in competition halls (t.110); appearing with equipment that is fraudulent or bears imitated or transferred homologation marks (t.73.1.c/d).
- 4th Group: Appearing with equipment willfully altered to defeat a preliminary check, equipped to allow recording of hits or non-functioning of the apparatus at will, or fitted with electronic communication equipment permitting a person off the piste to communicate with the fencer (t.73.1.e/f/g, t.169).
7.3 Corps à Corps and Flèche Attacks
The Referee must stop the bout whenever corps à corps occurs (Technical Rules t.25.1). A flèche ending systematically in a corps à corps must not be confused with a flèche resulting in a shock which jostles the opponent, which is treated as intentional brutality and punished as a 2nd-group offence (t.26.1). A flèche made by running, even going past the opponent, without a corps à corps, is not forbidden (t.26.2).
7.4 Video Replay Appeals
At FIE-level competitions, each fencer may request video review. In individual pool bouts, a fencer has one possible appeal per bout; in direct elimination bouts, two possible appeals (Technical Rules t.61.1). If the referee agrees with the appeal, the fencer retains the right of appeal. In team events, fencers have one possible right of appeal per relay (t.61.2).