Question Number: 30214

Law 12 - Fouls and Misconduct 3/24/2016

RE: Competitive High School

Aaron Speca of Virginia Beach, VA United States asks...

Hello! Wow has it been a long winter.

Two different handling situations.

Video #1: At the end of a long run, gold player slides to ground surrounded by three blue defenders, the ball pops up and hits her in the arm as she's sliding. Call is foul for handling.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsHuOFqTu60

Video #2: Yellow team crosses, #2 white is in the air and it appears to me that the ball hits his elbow with his arm against his side. Ball drops to his feet and he clears it. No call made. (On this one yellow team's coach was motioning like white defender's arm was outstretched and in the air and it looks to me like it clearly is not.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZsdERohZuAc

Thoughts? I feel like handling might be one of the toughest calls to make other than some offside situations.

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Aaron
Welcome back.
Thanks for the videos. Neither of theses situations are deliberate handling IMO. The first one is not handling as the ball strikes the players arm accidentally from short distance. The ball rears up instantly hitting the arm which was in my opinion in a natural position. The referee should have called a foul here for the challenge. The attacking players action were reckless and only the movement of Blue prevented heavy contact.
On the second one it is slightly more difficult to see and perhaps maybe the player has used his arm by his side to make himself bigger by the width of an arm. The ball comes from a distance and perhaps the player could have moved his arm away to avoid the ball hitting it. Having said that there is sufficient doubt on that action so I would not be calling this one either.
In general on handling calls referees should only be looking for deliberate actions. Every single time the ball hits an arm there is a shout for handling. The vast majority of the time it is not deliberate and they should not be called. I would safely say that 9 out of 10 times the ball makes contact with arm or a hand it is not deliberate. I had four in my game at the weekend and I called none of them. Just said NOT deliberate and on one I just ignored completely with no comment. There is also a debate about what is an unnatural position. My take on it is to ask the question of whether the player deliberately move her arms in a way to make herself bigger rather than the natural instinct of arm movement as part of a movement. The ones I am certain about are the situations where the players raises the arm before anything happens such as going to charge the ball down and raising the arms as part of the charge.
Here are is an examples like the first scenario that was correctly not called
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=K0BubRmKzt8

Answer provided by Referee Joe Manjone

Aaron,

I also believe that in each of the videos neither was a deliberate handling, carrying, striking or propelling the ball with a hand or arm as is required by NFHS Rule 12-2. Many times the video is not on the same angle as the referee who then has a different view of the play. However, the first video is looking over the referee on the same angle. I would like to ask him why he thought this handball should have been called. Thank you for the videos.

Answer provided by Referee Jason Wright

Hello again Aaron!

Oh wow, confusing pitch to play on! Where I referee there are often minisoccer fields running across the main pitch, which can get pretty messy as well.

Personally, I think there was a foul in the first clip - the player sliding in kicked the foot of one of the blue players. While she was going for the ball, she came in late (the blue player kicked the ball first). If the studs were showing then there should probably be a card.

Deliberate handling is applied in ways that could probably be best described as putting reasonable responsibility on the player to avoid handling the ball. Cases where the arms are further out to the side of the body than they really should be are examples of this.

I'm going to disagree with my esteemed colleague on this one. I feel that, as a player is sliding in, there is no reason for the arms to be coming up above the head like that. The arms should be tucked into the body (this also helps protect her). In doing so she's unintentionally 'charging down' any possible kick - and also means she has a good chance of collecting the legs of any player jumping over her!

So I argue for handling here - though the late tackle on the opponent is easier to sell, so I'd be claiming that one as a referee, despite the handling occurring a moment before!

At first glance I thought it was half a fall towards the ball, in which case she wouldn't really have much control over her hands.

I guess the disagreement does highlight the subjective element here.

The second one....that's a difficult one. It looks to me like the defender tucked his arms in front of him and that's where the ball struck them. The question is whether the arms should have been there or somewhere else. if it hit the elbow just beside the body then this is more likely to be deliberate handling, but we're looking at the age and skill of the players coupled with things like reaction time. I feel like a free kick here may have been a harsh decision, as given the age of the players I think he did as much as he could to avoid the handling. If the elbow was beside the body then maybe the argument could be made the he should have moved the elbow out of the way of the ball - I'm not convinced he had enough chance to react, at this age.

Answer provided by Referee MrRef

Hello Aaron,

Good to see you back your videos are always entertaining!
You are not incorrect in your assessments. The DFK offence known as handles the ball deliberately (except for the goalkeeper within his own penalty area) creates knots of fear in the 50% who witness if a ball and hand from a player of their team come into contact with one another. The eternal dance of was it it was it not? Referee looks, crinkles the brow, up comes the whistle to the mouth. Amid the cries of 'HAND BALL REF!' by the other 50% who are sure it was a foul, far too often we hear a whistle to stop play as the loud pro foul cries always seem to sway a lot of referees. In the 50 years I have been in and around the game I have seen NO improvement in the deliberations on the field as to accurately making this call more than 80% of the time. While a video does not always show the correct angle to make a 100% judgement. In my opinion from the videos no whistle is required for either incident.

From our pitch to your pitch in the spirit of fair play