Another weekend of Premier League football has come and gone and once more people are talking about the handball rule which is “killing our game”.
In the eight Premier League matches to take place over Saturday and Sunday, the outcomes of two games were directly impacted by penalties being awarded for handballs.
At Selhurst Park on Saturday, Crystal Palace were drawing 1-1 with Everton when Joel Ward was penalised after Lucas Digne’s downward header had hit his forearm from point-blank range.
Richarlison converted from 12 yards and the in-form Toffees saw out the remainder of the game to win 2-1. Palace manager Roy Hodgson said afterwards that he felt “disillusioned” by the handball rule and that it is “ruining football”.
Just over 24 hours later on the opposite side of London, Tottenham fell foul to the rule deep into second half injury time, when Eric Dier was adjudged to have handled from an Andy Carroll header.
Callum Wilson scored the resulting penalty in the 97th minute with Newcastle’s first effort on target in the game to snatch a 1-1 draw. Even Newcastle boss Steve Bruce hit out at the decision, calling it a “total nonsense.”
Managers, players, pundits, commentators, radio hosts, podcast guests and of course, supporters, have all been up in arms over the handball law and the interpretation of it in the Premier League.
But the referees, some of whom have looked bashful when awarding penalties for such unavoidable offences, will with some justification, defend their decisions by pointing to IFAB’s – International Football Association Board – law book.
IFAB Law 12: Fouls and misconduct
Handling the ball:
For the purposes of determining handball offences, the upper boundary of the arm is in line with the bottom of the armpit.
It is an offence if a player:
- deliberately touches the ball with their hand/arm, including moving the hand/arm towards the ball
- scores in the opponents’ goal directly from their hand/arm, even if accidental, including by the goalkeeper
- after the ball has touched their or a team-mate’s hand/arm, even if accidental, immediately:
- scores in the opponents’ goal
- creates a goal-scoring opportunity
- touches the ball with their hand/arm when:
- the hand/arm has made their body unnaturally bigger
- the hand/arm is above/beyond their shoulder level (unless the player deliberately plays the ball which then touches their hand/arm)
The above offences apply even if the ball touches a player’s hand/arm directly from the head or body (including the foot) of another player who is close.
Except for the above offences, it is not an offence if the ball touches a player’s hand/arm:
- directly from the player’s own head or body (including the foot)
- directly from the head or body (including the foot) of another player who is close
- if the hand/arm is close to the body and does not make the body unnaturally bigger
Referee Peter Bankes initially missed the incident concerning Dier and Carroll on Sunday and allowed play to continue before receiving instruction in his earpiece from VAR official Lee Mason to have a look at it.
Bankes jogged over to his pitchside monitor to review the incident – an admittedly welcome development in the Premier League this season – and applied the letter of the law to give Newcastle a penalty.
His justification for awarding the penalty would have been made in relation to clauses seven and eight: the hand/arm has made their body unnaturally bigger and the hand/arm is above/beyond their shoulder level.
By jumping to challenge Carroll in the air, Dier’s momentum took his arms upwards and away from his body, therefore, making his body bigger.
Dier would likely contend that there was nothing unnatural about where his arms were positioned which is where the confusing element to IFAB’s rule comes in.
IFAB changed the handball law in 2019 by stating that handballs below the bottom of the armpit would be punished, but Mike Riley, the chief of the PGMOL – Professional Game Match Officials Board – waited until this season to implement it in the Premier League.
i understands that the body do not wish to see an incident considered if the hand/arm contact happens within the body line or silhouette of a player or if the ball has travelled from close proximity onto a player’s arm.
That second point has been a troubling one this season. Ward and Dier this weekend and Matt Doherty and Victor Lindelof last weekend will feel that handballs awarded against them came from very close proximity indeed. There was little that the players in question could have done to avoid contact with the ball.
The Premier League campaign is only three weeks old and yet calls for a law change in relation to handball are growing more vociferous.
Given the unanimous outcry from Premier League managers, the issue will surely be discussed at the next shareholders meeting in October, even while there are countless other major issues on the agenda.
That will come as little comfort to Dier, Tottenham and Jose Mourinho who will feel that they were robbed of three points on Sunday.
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