The IFNA Council agreed new rules in July 1997 and the first official text was circulated in September 1997. That text, however, had to be re-arranged to separate out "Guidelines to Umpires" and the final text was circulated by IFNA to member countries in February 1998. The AENA worked very quickly to print and distribute the new rulebooks so that they could on sale before the end of March and introduced from the Inter-Counties Tournament in April 1998. Correspondence received in August 1998 confirmed that Australia had challenged the validity of the final text and legal advice had been sought by IFNA.
The legal advice clarified that the process of rewording some of the rules to clarify the intention of changes agreed by IFNA Council was not constitutional and where the exact wording had not been agreed, Rules should revert to the original text. The AENA Management Committee was, however, unable to consider the full implications of this until the new text was received from IFNA. When the England team departed for the Commonwealth Games early in September no revised rules text had been received. A meeting in Kuala Lumpar subsequently resolved the issue and a new version of the definitive text was received from IFNA on 23rd September.
The AENA Management Committee met on 26th September and decided that the (maroon) Rules Book would be re-printed, and that this (further) Revised Version of the rules would be implemented in England from 1st January 1999. In the meantime, the July 1997 Rules Book is applicable with the additional interpretation of Rule 18.1.1.
All England or your County Umpiring Secretary will replace the existing maroon version with a new edition from the end of November.