Question Number: 35274

Law 12 - Fouls and Misconduct 12/8/2023

RE: Amateur Adult

Mühenned Elseyho of Onikisubat, Kahramanmaras Turkey asks...

https://youtu.be/MPY_d26szLw?feature=shared

Hello, how are you? I have 3 cases of hand touches. Are they intentional? Can you provide me with a general plan for dealing with hand touches? Thank you all

Answer provided by Referee Richard Dawson

Hi Mühenned my friend,
the discretionary aspect of a referees' OPINION as to whether the player deliberately handles the ball is a subjective one . I watched your video saw nothing but play on actions as the players where the ball struck the arm had no obvious or discernible deliberate movement.
The LOTG give a few guidelines but the unnatural position of arms away from the body is a real head scratcher at times.
Questions to ask?
How close?
How fast?
How aware?
Ball flight angle or deflection?
Was there room to react?
If a player challenges and in doing so the arms are extended or dragged often that is seen as a deliberate action making the body bigger . For example jumping up into the air raising your arms up over your head or sliding along the ground dragging them out behind you if there is ball contact to those raised or dragged arms almost 100% guaranteed it will be seen as a DFK!

What I personally dislike is this sense of ANY contact between the arm and ball call it a foul as it makes it easier!
In my opinion, I hold the players, coaches, managers and spectators accountable to how these calls are now made as they all seem to demand every contact as a foul. Perhaps because it offers unparalleled consistency!

a contrite phrase often repeated as a useful barometer is
"Ball to hand is not a foul.
Hand to ball is a foul."

The new classification of awarding a DFK for ANY accidental handling that results in an immediate goal or scoring opportunity is contrary to the actual deliberate handling law itself.

If it WAS accidental how can it be deliberate handling? Sigh.
It had to do with the perception of unfairness that a goal results .
Deliberate handling actions for the most part are fairly obvious & often have attached misconduct like a red card for DOGSO or at least a caution for breaking up the attack.

Still the obvious deliberate handling like biter man Luis Suarez Handball Uruguay Against Ghana that prevented a goal are easy to spot deliberate actions and almost always have attached misconduct like a red card for DOGSO or at least a caution for breaking up the attack.
look at 2.19
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dM-29hy-Qyw

or a keeper handling the ball outside the PA still thinking he is ok inside, but may not be as easy to spot. Still 100% deliberate and in this case a DOGSO thus red card as well
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/sqAzBNCXeGA

When I clearly see the ball striking the arm in a manner where I feel, I think , I sense no obvious deliberate action and thus, I will not be whistling for a stoppage because in MY opinion there was NO FOUL! I simply yell out,
NO! Nothing there! or NOT Deliberate! Keep going!

I do NOT use the term, PLAY or PLAY ON because that is the term I use to apply the advantage , having determined it was a foul, but there was adequate reason to allow play to continue. I might call our ADVANTAGE signalling with the arm(s) and then IF realized I add the PLAY ON! indicating we are not coming back to the point of a foul!

I can only offer this bit of advise, neutral referees with integrity, based on what they know, make calls on what they see, from the angle of view they have, the moment it occurs in real time! As referees we are well aware of the view from the middle in a split second decision is FAR different then the biased arm chair decisions we might arrive at after a lengthy stop, start, rewind, freeze peer review, often from multiple angles .
Cheers

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Mühenned
The great handling debate has been part of the game for a very long time. Over the past number of decades with increased camera angles, technology, freeze frame, high definition images etc the focus on handling has been intense. It is the toughest decisions any referee has to make in any game. Some are minor decision such as a call at half way yet penalty call have significant impact.

IFAB the law making body has made a number of attempts to help bring clarity to making handling decisions which has not really improved matters other than a goal cannot now be scored off ANY touch of the hand or arm including accidental. That is now a direct free kick to the defending team.

IFAB removed the following advice which was part of the Laws in 2019.
It is not usually 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
# when a player falls and the hand/arm is between the body and the ground to support the body, but not extended laterally or vertically away from the body.
While no longer written in the Laws and replaced with more general advice I suspect many referees may still use that *old* advice. Interestingly senior referees in the US were coached to call handling on a player touching the ball on the ground in slide challenges on the basis that it was making the player bigger even though horizontal. Perhaps that was one of the reasons why point 4 of the 2019/20/21 advice was removed. I dont know other than what the explanation which stated that
# Not every contact between the hand/arm and the ball is a handball offence.
# Referees must judge the ‘validity’ of the hand/arm’s position in relation to
what the player is doing in that particular situation.

Now as to most handling decisions it is still a subjective matter and it is up to referees to consider if the action was deliberate or not and / or if the player has made their body unnaturally bigger by extending the arms away from the body in a manner not a consequence of, or justifiable by, the player’s body movement for that specific situation, including on the ground.

I like to refer to handling decisions on a scale of 1 to 10 with the higher numbers being actual deliberate movement of the hand / arm to play / stop the ball. Those are pretty rare and referees rarely have to call those. Probably a goalkeeper using the hands outside the penalty area are the most common ones that I see along with the attempt to stop the ball on the line with a hand.
Here are 10 examples
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YS2SZiGn8Uc&pp=ygUcU29jY2VyIGhhbmQgdG8gYmFsbCBleGFtcGxlcw%3D%3D
No doubt about any of them and all of them high 10s

At the other end of the scale is where a ball hits a player on the arm and the player has no knowledge of the ball, has the arm in a natural position and is unable to avoid the ball. Totally accidental so no handling offence.
Have a look at this video
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0bqMlnVtohg
#16 Argentina heads the ball on to his arm. VAR asked for a review and your fellow countryman Referee Cakir ruled it was not deliberate and dismissed the appeals for a penalty which was entirely correct. 16 has his eyes closed and heads the ball on to his arm which goes to a Nigerian player. Mikel of Nigeria would not agree with that call nor most of Nigeria. I suspect most agreed with it in Argentina! For me it was not deliberate handling.

Now in the middle is the grey zone where it can be difficult to determine if the action was deliberate or not. The laws tells us that not every touch of a player’s hand/arm with the ball is an offence as we know a player’s arm have to go somewhere and there is not always the time or opportunity to avoid the ball.
Those are the vast majority of handling decisions that a referee will have to make in a game. Every contact on the arm will attract howls of handball and a referee will have to make a judgement as to whether the player made their body unnaturally bigger by extending the arms away from the body.

In your three examples I would not be calling deliberate handling on any of them. The three players have their arms at their side in perfectly natural positions and there is no deliberate attempt to move an arm towards the ball nor did the players make themselves unnaturally bigger by extending their arms away from the body nor did they attempt to redirect the ball. Those are all at the lower end of the scale and not even in the grey middle zone.

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