In any penalty, "loss of a down" means that the down upon which the foul occurred has used up one of the permissible series of consecutive downs.
In any penalty where there is a loss of yardage, there shall be no loss of down.
EXCEPTION: Major Foul (See Rule 7, Section 2)
When a foul has been committed on any play, the non-offending team shall be entitled to the penalty or the option of declining the penalty to take any advantage of position, score, down, time, etc. The non-offending team may decline a score to take advantage of a penalty or may decline a penalty to permit a score by the offending team to stand.
In certain cases, where so stated, a penalty shall be applied without option.
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The CFL Official Rule Book is published annually by the Canadian Football League. Any inquiries regarding the CFL Official Playing Rules may be directed to Darren Hackwood, Director of Officiating at dhackwood@cfl.ca. Any inquiries regarding CFL Statistical Scoring Rules may be directed to Steve Daniel, Director of Game Information and Head Statistician at sdaniel@cfl.ca.