Action in which a penalty was decreed against Real Madrid by the hand of Militao against Sevilla. /
The only novelty is that involuntary actions will only be punishable if a direct and immediate goal is achieved by that player.
The 2021-22 season that begins on Friday in the First Division with the Valencia-Getafe dispute will once again put the referees in the eye of the hurricane. That is why, in order to try to avoid sterile disputes, the heads of the Technical Referees Committee have tried to clarify the criteria that will be followed to resolve controversial actions. The main focus of attention last season was on the hands, which raised a huge stir due to the interpretive nature of these actions, and everything indicates that they will once again be the center of many debates in the new course.
The president of the Technical Committee of Referees, Carlos Velasco Carballo, has clarified that the only real change in these sets of the game will affect accidental or involuntary hands, which “will only be punishable if a goal is achieved directly and immediately” as a result of that action and by the footballer who touched the ball with his hand. In this way, if it is a teammate who scores or generates a scoring chance, it will no longer be sanctioned as an offense. Until now, any involuntary hand prior to the goal was stipulated as an infraction, whether committed by the scorer or a teammate.
Alberto Undiano Mallenco, member of the Technical Commission of the referees, has tried to shed more light on those hands that are considered punishable and those that are not. Regarding the first, there are three types. First, the voluntary hand, which is the one in which a gesture or movement is made towards the ball. A punishable hand is also considered to be one that is in an unnatural position. Thus, when a player occupies a greater space with his arm or hand running a risk and, as a consequence, cuts a pass from an opponent, a shot on goal, etc. Finally there is the immediate hand to the goal, even if it is accidental, by the footballer who scores the goal.
On the contrary, Undiano Mallenco recalled, those hands that are in a natural position, close to the body, supported or on the path of support are not punishable actions to offer the footballer a support in order to maintain balance, those that are the product of a rebound in the player’s own body, those that come after the clearance of a teammate, the goal after accidental and immediate hand of a teammate or the goal after non-immediate accidental hand.
“We must all understand that the hands are a subjective fact and it is only up to the referee to interpret what is natural or what is unnatural,” said Velasco Carballo, who has claimed the need to “respect that decision” of the referee on duty. In this sense, he has argued that “the criteria are perfectly clear and the arbitrators are perfectly clear”, although he has stressed that they are “a subjective fact and decided by a person.” “The hand error in the area was minimal last season,” he added.
.
