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Post by rugbytoffee on Aug 5, 2021 12:24:52 GMT
Two Laws of the Game have been revised by the International Football Association Board (IFAB), changing how handball is interpreted by match officials.
Deliberate act of handball
The first change centres on interpreting what is a deliberate act of handball.
Referees will now look for a deliberate action on behalf of the player, with an emphasis on whether the hand/arm is in a natural position or not.
“An arm extended away from the body makes that body bigger, in an unnatural position,” explains Mike Riley, Managing Director of Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL), the referees’ body.
“If the ball strikes that arm, particularly if it is blocking a shot on goal, there is a greater likelihood we will penalise that.”
The proximity of the player whose hand or arm makes contact with the ball to where the ball was struck from will still be an important consideration for officials when making a decision to award handball or not.
Handball before scoring
The second change is on accidental handball in the immediate build-up to a goal.
If an attacking player’s accidental handball immediately precedes another player scoring, the goal will now be awarded, when last season it was likely to have been ruled out.
However, a player will still be penalised if he commits an accidental handball immediately before scoring himself.
So, the goal scored by Callum Wilson at Liverpool last season that was overturned because the ball struck the Newcastle United striker's arm would still not stand.
Please note that a player still cannot score a goal with their arm, even if it is accidental.
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Post by empresstouch on Aug 5, 2021 14:39:46 GMT
Like in many sports, reactive rule changes brought in to counter offences, rather than using foresight to steer travel from unfortunate direction, have become the 21st century norm in football.
It had reached the stage that the only available option of 'Touch the hand/arm, and it's an offence' was temporarily brought in as an act of lawmakers admitting defeat against law-manipulation.
But there are other ways of viewing this:
In (field) hockey, it has been made an offence for the ball to touch any player's foot for decades,
partly to make the game more TV-friendly,
but also in anticipation of how the game may have been impacted, were the law not to be part of the sport -
BEFORE the sport's integrity were to permanently-snowball downwards.
Now changing the culture of how field hockey is approached in comparison to 2021-22 Premier League football would be vastly different, to say the least.
But change, where desperately needed, has to start somewhere...
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