According to the will of rules experts, soccer referees should now once again get a precise definition of the criminal handball. In a video conference, the members of the football and technology advisory bodies of the International Football Association Board (IFAB) agreed that there should be “further clarification” with regard to the interpretation of the rules.
The reason is that the wording of the revised 2019/20 version is not always interpreted in the same way. Not every touch of the ball by a player with his hand or arm is an offense, the committees announced on Monday.
Return to the old rule?
Therefore, a definition of the term “unnaturally enlarged” would help the Referees so that they would know that the position of the hand or arm at the time the player moves in this phase of the game is decisive.
The hands rule before 2019
Handball is when a player deliberately touches the ball with his hand or arm. The following must be taken into account:
- The movement of the hand to the ball (not the ball to the hand)
- The distance between opponent and ball (unexpected ball)
- The position of the hand (touching the ball itself is not an offense)
At the beginning of November it became known that the rulers were considering a proposal by the European Football Association (UEFA) to change the handball rules. UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin suggested a return to the handball rule that applied before last season.
The gray area of intent
In 2019, the IFAB introduced, among other things, that every goal scored with the hand or arm is irregular – regardless of whether there is intent or not. Regardless of the intention, according to the rule, there is also an offense if the player unnaturally increases the area of his body – for example, if the arm is held above shoulder height.
Before the rule change, answering the question of whether handball was intentional or unintentional had played the crucial role. The interpretation of the new handball rule causes discussions among coaches, players and fans, as there have been many penalty area scenes recently in which players were shot in the hand at close range and a penalty was often awarded afterwards, although evasive action was no longer possible.
