Penalties - Handball rant

[1966 and all that]

With recent controversy on penalties for handball, here’s my take. I agree, for once, with Arian Chiles that only two people know for certain whether handball is deliberate viz. the ‘perpetrator’ and God. I feel that refs are too quick to award penalties just because the ball has touched a player’s hand. I know that refs have a difficult job as it is but it seems to me they err on giving the benefit of the (considerable) doubt to the forward, no doubt egged on by the crowd and the appealing players. In reality, how many defenders think ‘I’d better handle this ball in the penalty area in case it leads to a goal?’

Two recent examples. I truly believe in the West Ham/Man U game, the former was definitely not a penalty (for which justice was served) and the latter was marginal. Thus I think Sam was wrong to say both should have been given or not given. The other case was the Suarez ‘handball’ for his goal against Mansfield. I’m not sure whether it was deliberate – but you can bet that if it had been a defender in the same circumstances in reverse (if you see what I mean) that the same ref would have awarded a penalty.

So my answer is simple. Rely on the player admitting it was deliberate (yeah right) or allowing all players to pick up the ball and run with it but only while it’s in the penalty area (ditto):winking:.

Rant over. What do others think?

 

[Pubey]

I do agree that 'deliberate handball' is awarded too often. I'm not a ref but it does seem to be the case that people are being penalised for handball when they clearly didn't mean to handle it.

People and pundits have always made weird comments like 'ball to hand', 'unnatural position' or 'had time to move the hand away'. You also hear these claims when playing sunday league.

I disagree with the first two but I think the third one is key. If the ball has travelled a reasonable distance and the person could probably have avoided handling it then to me that is deliberate. I think tight ricochets onto the hand or just because somebody has their arm up or out in front of them (try running, jumping or changing direction with your arm welded to your side!) doesn't mean deliberate hand ball and I'd like to see the benefit of the doubt swing back to being that it needs to be clearly deliberate.

 

[chapperzUK]

I think the rules should be made more clear and for it to be deliberate is silly IMO.

There are a couple of things that need to be considered by the ref.

Firstly, the position of the arm. If the arm is by the side of the player and the ball hits it, then what chance did the player have of getting out the way. On the other hand (no pun intended), if the player has them stretched out to make themselves look big and it hits them, then that is a handball. This is usually seen when a defender is near someone attempting to cross the ball.

Secondly, did the player gain an advantage from the handball? For example, if the deflection off the arm or hand helps the offending player or team.

So in Suarez's case, his arm was not close to his body and he did gain an advantage, so IMO it should have been ruled out.

For the Man U penalty, although his arm did direct the ball away, his arm was close to his body.

There will always be a grey area for all decisions and close calls, so we will always have these debates.

Another thing I hate is the "his studs were showing", but how are you going to slide and not have your studs off the ground?

 

[superblue24]

I can't agree with anything Adrian Chiles says. Someone high up and ******** must have looked at him and thought "now there's a face that could present anything on tv" .

I now automatically switch over when I see him.

 

[Mick]

I think the rules should be made more clear and for it to be deliberate is silly IMO.

There are a couple of things that need to be considered by the ref.

Firstly, the position of the arm. If the arm is by the side of the player and the ball hits it, then what chance did the player have of getting out the way. On the other hand (no pun intended), if the player has them stretched out to make themselves look big and it hits them, then that is a handball. This is usually seen when a defender is near someone attempting to cross the ball.

Secondly, did the player gain an advantage from the handball? For example, if the deflection off the arm or hand helps the offending player or team.

So in Suarez's case, his arm was not close to his body and he did gain an advantage, so IMO it should have been ruled out.

For the Man U penalty, although his arm did direct the ball away, his arm was close to his body.

There will always be a grey area for all decisions and close calls, so we will always have these debates.

Another thing I hate is the "his studs were showing", but how are you going to slide and not have your studs off the ground?

Whether the team/player gain an advantage has absolutely no bearing within the Laws of the game, nor the advisory guidelines, as things stand.

The difficulty for referees is to assess intent which as stated is nigh on impossible. Make all contact a free-kick and you'll get players deliberately trying to get penalties/free-kicks that way. I think more penalties are given than should be (especially to Man Utd!).

Your comment about studs etc I agree with. You get all sorts of "pundit speak" which is ambiguous, misleading or downright wrong.