Question Number: 25155

Law 11 - Offside 7/1/2011

RE: Select Under 12

Marshall VanderMey of Rockford, Michigan US asks...

I have been told by several referees in our league that if a player gains an advantage by 'accidentally' handling a ball, ie it stops a ball from going through to an opponent, than the player should still be penalised for handling. Besides being a coach, I have also refereed for over 18 years and officiated over 1000 matches at various levels. In all my years of continuing education in soccer officiating and recertifying, I have never heard this taught. Many of our games have become 'bogged down' with the large number of handling calls being made (over 20 of them in one match this spring)because of this interpertation of the LOTG. If I am wrong, I will definitely apologize, but for everything I have read through FIFA, the USSF and other referee sources, this is not correct. Everything I have read says that if the handling was accidental the fact the player may have gained an advantage by it does not constitute an infraction of Law 12. This clarification is for my well being as I intend on continuing to officiate matches and want to make sure I didn't miss something big somewhere. I will give you one specific case to chew on:
Player 1 is a defender on Red team. Ball is played by Player A on attacking team in White towards her teammate Player B, who is being defended by Player 1. The ball bounces up just before it arrives to Player B and strikes Red Player 1 on the back of the arm as she was attempting to get out of the way of the ball by turning from the ball. AR signals to CR that a foul has been committed for handling and a DFK is awarded to the attacking team. Before the kick is taken, I as the coach ask to speak to CR and he obliges (which was very nice of him). I ask why he considered that a foul since the player obviously wasn't intending on handling the ball and even made an attempt to avoid the touch. Response I received is that defender gained an advantage when the ball hit her since it prevented the pass from being completed. This is very typical of what I have been seeing lately. Is this correct?

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Marshall
You are 100% correct in that for handling to be called as an offence it must be deliberate. It has nothing whatsoever to do with whether the player was given an advantage by the ball accidentally hitting his hand or arm. The Law only requires deliberate handling offences to be called not the consequences of accidental contact .
Now in reality human nature being what it is players will look for a free kick at every possible opportunity. That happens every single time the ball makes contact with a player's hand or arm. The referee is then asked to adjudicate on this. What happens is through perhaps a desire to be equitable the referee is inclined to award the DFK when the ball falls kindly to the player that has stopped the ball accidentally with his hand or arm. You will note though that the threshold for this rises significantly when the decision will result in a penalty.
I did an U10 game during the week and there was at least 8 calls for deliberate handling all of which I waved away as not deliberate. I did not care where the ball went or what happened. It really disappoints me to read that a game had 20 handling offences called. Indeed I would suspect that perhaps at best 2 were deliberate. It is a sorry state of affairs that referees are promoting this as viable. Personally I think that the game probably needs to revisit deliberate handling and the way that it is taught and the way that its incorrect treatment has become implicit knowledge. The sooner we get back to only penalising the deliberate movement of the player's hand or arm to the ball the better.
BTW the smart referee, rather than say that the defender gained an advantage when the ball hit her, will say that the action was that the player could have avoided the touch but chose not to or that the player's arms were not in a normal playing position at the time, or that the player deliberately continued an initially accidental contact for the purpose of gaining an unfair advantage. Therin lies the dilemma

Answer provided by Referee Keith Contarino

You are absolutely correct. The foul is deliberately handling the ball. If the action is not deliberate, and the player did not make himself bigger there's no infraction, period. Where the ball lands means nothing

Answer provided by Referee Dennis Wickham

If the touch of the ball is accidental, it is not a handling foul - - even if the player then gained an advantage from the deflection. This notion is a myth.

What is not a myth, however, is that one factor for the referee to consider in deciding whether the handling was deliberate or accidental, is whether the player used the arm to gain a tactical advantage. If a defender can get a tactical advantage from a deflection off the ball by placing the arm above her head on a dangerous cross, in fact, places her arm above her head on a dangerous cross, and then, realizes the tactical advantage when the 'ball hits her arm', she probably did it on purpose.

Answer provided by Referee Michelle Maloney

Whoever is teaching or spreading this interpretation of a handling offense is dead wrong.

Under no circumstances can an 'accidentally handled' ball be an offense. The Law is clear - there is no confusion as to what 'deliberately handles' the ball means. Deliberate = on purpose, with malice of aforethought.

Even if the defender, or even the attacking player, benefits from an accidentally handled ball, this does not make it an offense. If the referee in question had ever seen the Myths of the Game video put out by USSF several years ago, they would have seen this very thing shown. The ball hits an attacker on the back of the arm and falls to her feet, whereupon she continues on with the ball. No offense, and there should never be one.

Whether the handling is accidental or not is always a referee decision based on what is seen or 'felt', but if the referee isn't sure it was deliberate, the whistle should NOT sound. Heaven knows this is one of the most missed calls in the game. One can forgive ignorance in those who are not schooled in the LOTG, but there is no excuse for a referee to miss this one. None.

We're glad you've got it exactly right!