On the morning of Sunday, July 3rd, 1994, the Daily Prophet unusually had a sports story as a front page headline.

INTERNATIONAL QUIDDITCH COMMITTEE PASSES MAJOR RULE CHANGES:

Early Sunday morning, the Daily Prophet learned that the International Quidditch Committee passed major rule changes for Quidditch at their meeting in London. This is currently breaking news and the details of how these rule changes came to be and the discussions that led to them are not fully known yet. But the long and the short of it is that effective immediately, the sport of Quidditch shall undergo the following rule changes.

1. The value of the Golden Snitch shall be reduced from 150 points to 50 points to place more emphasis on goal scoring and goal saving. This rule change is intended to reward teams with strong Chasers and Keepers while still retaining some value on strong Seekers and getting the Golden Snitch. Pulling out a win by getting the Golden Snitch is still possible but the trailing team must now be significantly closer to enjoy this opportunity. If a team with a superb Chasing and Keeping game builds a 140 point lead, it really isn't fair for them to lose on one play. Keeping striking distance is now required to pull off a come from behind win with the Golden Snitch.

2. Beaters may no longer hit the Bludgers towards opposing players. Henceforth, the sole role of Beaters is to keep the Bludgers away from their own team. If a Beater directs a Bludger at an opposing player, it shall result in a penalty shot to be attempted by any Chaser of the opposing team's choice. This rule change is intended to make the sport of Quidditch a little more humane. Indeed, most cases of Quidditch players being injured by Bludgers were in fact a direct result of opposing Beaters intentionally setting the Bludgers on them. Reducing the role of the Bludgers in Quidditch is intended to reduce the danger of the sport.

3. In the name of fairness, from now on, all Quidditch players shall use the same kind of broom while playing Quidditch. Just as performance enhancing drugs can give an unfair advantage, so too superior equipment can give an unfair advantage. Sport should be dictated by natural skill and performance and should not have equipment advantage playing any role. While Firebolts and Nimbuses are fantastic racing brooms, they are very expensive and not all players can reasonably be expected to afford them. So, in the spirit of fairness, the standard broom for use in Quidditch will now be the Cleansweep 7. The Cleansweep 7 is a quality broom that is affordable for the average witch or wizard and that makes it the ideal model to become the standard broom for use in Quidditch. Standardizing the broom to be used in Quidditch matches will ensure that winners and losers will be determined by natural skill and quality performance on match days.

4. Along the fairness lines, going forward, Quidditch teams will be allowed to make substitutions in the case of injury so that all matches remain games of 7 on 7. Each team will be permitted 3 substitutes in a match. Both teams must inform the referee of their starting lineup before the beginning of a match, but, if a starter is injured, then he or she may be replaced by a substitute. This increases fairness by avoiding having a team play shorthanded.

5. To keep the time of matches under control and somewhat predictable, Quidditch matches will forevermore by played using a descending 60 minute clock. If the Golden Snitch has not been caught in the 60 minutes of regulation, the team with the lead at that point shall be declared the winner. Catching the Golden Snitch still ends the game, but all games now have a time limit and if the Golden Snitch is not captured in that time limit, then the leading team shall be declared the winner at the end of the allotted 60 minutes. If the Golden Snitch is not caught within 60 minutes and if the game is tied at the end of those 60 minutes, then a sudden death next goal tiebreaker will be implemented. This time limit ensures that athletes playing Quidditch won't put excessive wear and tear on their bodies by playing in super long matches. This rule change is designed to preserve the bodies of Quidditch players over the long run.

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