Question Number: 35660

Law 12 - Fouls and Misconduct 8/17/2024

Barry Stewart of Chilliwack, BC Canada asks...

Hi, I was just looking at the new IFAB laws for the coming season — and saw this, about non-deliberate handballs:

“Law 12. Fouls and Misconduct
Clarification that non-deliberate handball offences for which penalties are awarded are to be sanctioned in the same way as fouls which are an attempt to play the ball or a challenge for the ball“

A few years ago, attackers were barred from scoring directly or immediately after a non-deliberate handball.

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Barry
Not all contact with the hand or arm is an offence. That has not changed and referees have to decide if the handling should be called and now in certain situations as to the variety. Some will be easy while others will not.

In DOGSO situations a handling offence would be sanctioned with a red card. Under this change non deliberate DOGSO handling would not attract a red card as in the past where a penalty has been awarded.

Similarly where a regular foul would not attract a caution on a penalty award this change means that a non deliberate handling would also be treated similarly with no card whereas previously most handling penalty kicks resulted in a card..

So to the contrary the change is beneficial to defenders in that the sanction for non deliberate is not as harsh as for deliberate.
Non-deliberate handball offences are usually the result of a player attempting to play fairly, so when a penalty kick is awarded for such offences, the same philosophy should apply as for offences which are an attempt to play the ball or a challenge for the ball, i.e. DOGSO offences result in a yellow card and SPA offences result in no card. Deliberate handball remains a red-card offence when a penalty kick is awarded, as it is similar to holding, pulling, pushing, no possibility to play the ball etc.

Answer provided by Referee Peter Grove

Hi Barry,
Whereas in the past all handling had to be deliberate in order for it to be an offence, due to some of the more recent changes to the handball law there are now two classes of handling offence: deliberate and non-deliberate.

This latest change does not mean that all handballs are now offences, only that when a handling offence inside the penalty area falls into the non-deliberate category and denies an obvious goal scoring opportunity the punishment should only be a yellow card and a penalty not a red card and a penalty.

The following questions were asked as a follow up to the above question...

See Question: 35663