The start of this Premier League season has been overshadowed by a new handball rule which some people think is “killing our game”.
Crystal Palace manager Roy Hodgson said that he felt “disillusioned” by the handball rule and that it is “ruining football” after a decision went against his side while Steve Bruce described it as a “total nonsense” even though his Newcastle side benefitted from the new interpretation.
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 the International Football Association Board (Ifab)’s 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 an incident concerning Eric Dier and Andy Carroll during Newcastle’s visit to Tottenham in late September 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 – 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 the player’s 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 does 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 and Matt Doherty and Victor Lindelof in incidents the weekend before 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.
Given the unanimous outcry from Premier League managers, the issue is being discussed by football’s lawmakers Ifab.
That will come as little comfort to Dier, Tottenham and Jose Mourinho who will feel that they were robbed of all three points against Newcastle.
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from Football – inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/3cFuemI
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