Question Number: 32672

Law 12 - Fouls and Misconduct 8/28/2018

RE: Rec indoor / Select outdoor Adult

K Turner of Las Vegas, NV USA asks...

Had an indoor game tonight with tons of handballs on both teams and calls of inconsistency as to when I whistled for a foul or not. I really only have some doubt on a couple situations when a ball is passed to a player who is not being challenged and their first touch causes the ball to bounce up into their arm (ball to hand). In one case I whistled after a 30 yard lob clearance and the player tried to trap it with his arm horizontal and the ball came up to his arm"reasoning he must have some responsibility to control the trap with no opponent near him. In another instance I didnt whistle because a player on the run received a crisp ground pass from a teammate 10 yards away and the ball came from his foot straight up to an arm maybe 30 degrees away from the body. I know its impossible to weigh in conclusively wIthout seeing a video but any general considerations you might have?

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi K
Generally when a ball rears up unexpectedly off a body part at close range it is not deliberate provided of course that the player has not positioned his arms in such away as to *anticipate* that.
From what you describe I would say they read like correct decisions. The one where a players uses his raised arm to assist in chest control is usually seen as deliberate handling. The only challenge for the referee is to determine if the arm was used.
I would also say that in any game there will be appeals for handling every time the ball strikes an arm / hand. Teams can get frustrated when one is called against them and not called for them. I usually shout Not Deliberate on the ones I do not give which shows that I have seen it but chosen to not call it.

Answer provided by Referee Richard Dawson

H K,
if you watched the recent outdoor WC they were pretty strict on what constituted a deliberate act even IF there was no deliberate intent . Basically the trend is if a player attempts to control or play the ball, the arms can not be wide or raised up to enlarge the area he can defend. Secondly any attempt to tackle where the RISK of being off balance or going to ground allows ball to arm contact on the ground is likely going to get called.

The defection in close. if off a secondary player is likely no foul as in say a downward header that strikes a defenders' arm at his side .

You raise a good point the crux of deliberate is in how the arms are utilized as a secondary appendage . Given they are attached to the body they can not be placed totally out of harms way.

In MY opinion palms out facing the incoming ball to me are slightly more susceptible then palms away. A ball striking the palm looks far more deliberate then say the back of wrist being pulled away. I coach as well and tell players to curl their fingers inward not a tight fist but pulling a fist away looks less likely than an open palm .

A fast moving ricochet that bounces up or off something you need to judge if the arms were in a reasonable playing position versus a spreading of the wings to limit space? But the closer & faster it is the less likely there is a foul

AS to an incoming soft approaching ball in the old days we see a strange bounce if there were no attacker we let it go as it is was not their intent to handle the ball but given we no longer judge intent we look was there a deliberate action to play the ball. As in offside now when a defender plays the ball we ask did he do so deliberately because if he did the opposition is no longer restricted from offside. In a deliberate handling foul we need to asses a similar concept . Because we do NOT judge the intent we look at the action undertaken, the speed, distance,, line of sight, awareness was the arm used to limit space for the ball to get by?

If a player lunges for a ball to say chest it, misses, that ball hits the ground and up under a spread out arm it is likely going to get called. If it bounces up off the chest say into the face or chin and drops down onto the back of a forearm it is likely it should NOT be called.

I use a saying, your match your decision your reputation. Whatever standard you use try to keep the basics of how FIFA is training their referees now to evaluate but at least in each match apply what you know the SAME! When I see a ball to hand and I am NOT calling it a foul as that is NOT hand to ball in MY opinion. I will shout out something like NO! Nothing NOT deliberate! to let those watching know I SAW ball/arm, I did not miss seeing the two touch just I did not see it as a foul.
Cheers

Answer provided by Referee Peter Grove

Hi K,
Handball is probably area of the law that is the most subjective and occasions the most debate, even among referees, as to how it should be interpreted.

My preference is to stick as closely as possible to what the laws actually say, paying the most attention to the primary requirement, which states that:

''Handling the ball involves a deliberate act of a player making contact with the ball with the hand or arm.''

So the first (and most important) thing you have to decide is, 'Did the player deliberately make contact with the ball, using their hand or arm?'

Sometimes that is as far as you need to go with the law - if it's clear to you straight away that the handling was (or was not) a deliberate act by the player, your decision can be made.

In order to help referees decide, the law also offers the following advice:

''The following must be considered:

the movement of the hand towards the ball (not the ball towards the hand)
the distance between the opponent and the ball (unexpected ball)
the position of the hand does not necessarily mean that there is an offence''

Please remember that these are the secondary factors and do not override the primary consideration, they are just ways to help you decide if the primary requirement has been met.

Other considerations are also secondary - such as the much-discussed 'unnatural arm position.' Even though this is not specifically mentioned, it is indirectly referenced in the 'position of the hand' clause and again, what the law is telling us is that this is not necessarily the deciding factor. So if you're following what the law says, you can't decide on handling offences based on hand position alone - it's a factor to be considered but no more.

I actually feel (and I think the way the law is written reflects this) that the first two considerations are more important so in the examples you give, I'd be looking more at the 'unexpected ball' criteria than the hand position. If you think the ball has deflected (even off the player's own body) in a way that the player could not have expected to happen, and they did not have enough time to react to this unexpected deflection, then the handing was probably not deliberate.