Question Number: 34253

Law 12 - Fouls and Misconduct 6/21/2021

RE: rec

sal of Chicago, Illinois United States asks...

In the video I've included, do you see a PK or no call.https://www.la10.com.co/futbol-colombiano/liga-betplay/2021/6/20/video-polemica-en-la-ultima-jugada-doble-mano-de-jugador-de-tolima-no-es-sancionada-2767.html

Answer provided by Referee Richard Dawson

Hi Sal,.
if you are asking for MY personal opinion?
never in a million years is that a PK for deliberate handling!
In what passes for officiating in today's matches someone will point out his arms are too far away from his body. Do not care, it was rebound deflection from close range. NO WAY that's a foul where you award an opportunity to score out of NOTHING!

Cheers

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Sal
The great handling debate.
Personally I do not see this as handling. The ball is headed by a team mate from short range and it appears to hit the players arm and rears up to hit his raised arm. This could not be considered deliberate or by the player making himself bigger within the meaning of Law 12.
The former wording on handling stated that it was not considered handling if the ball was played at short range at the player or the player played the ball directly himself on to his arm. That has been removed from the current wording yet in my opinion most referees will be of the opinion that such handlings should not be called.
In the clip it appears that the referee did not call it either. Perhaps another referee might call it based on the raised arm above the head yet for me it would be extremely harsh yet it is always in the opinion of the referee on the day.

Answer provided by Referee Jason Wright

Hi Sal,
Good question and definitely not a foul for me.
I'm not sure which version of the laws are used in this match as there are quite a few changes to the handball law between 2020/21 and 21/22.

The main change of significance here is that 21/22 removes any comments about deflections off the player themselves or nearby players.

Which is just as well, because I always thought that whole section was redundant - it always stated 'unless the arm is making the body unnaturally bigger' - but that became the main criteria anyway, so the deflection 'exemptions' really just went around in circles.
So, unnaturally making the body bigger is still one of the 3 key points of handball - the others being deliberate handling, and attackers scoring.

The laws also instruct referees to consider the player's body movement for that particular situation (even before this was written into laws, we should always do this).

I still tend to think a rule of thumb is 'could the player reasonably have been expected to avoid handling here?'. For instance, when defenders block shots by lunging into tackles with arms wide out, while it's a natural(ish) position, one could argue that the defender has a reasonable obligation to try to keep the arms out of the ball's likely path.

So, take the situation in this clip: the arms are both wide out from the body - but the player is off balance. So, already, he has no control over the arms.
The ball is deflected at extremely close range, in a very unlikely manner (if we consider handling offences from deflections I think it's always worth considering whether anybody could have expected the ball to approach that direction - I don't think anybody would here).
So, off-balance player with little-to-no control over their arms, has a badly misplayed ball from 1-2 yards behind him headed straight onto his arm.
That's definitely not a foul.

Now, sure, it hits the second arm - that arm even moves towards the ball, and this is absolutely worth considering. I've seen this sort of thing where the player has moved the arm - more as a surprise reaction, but moved it towards the ball. Here though - again, it's a crazy deflection, and that arm is only coming up from the movement that is already occurring from being off balance.

So, while the ball striking both arms is unusual, we still need to think about all aspects - and it doesn't necessarily make it a foul.

For me, this is very clearly not a foul.