HATE THE RULE THAT’S WRECKING FOOTBALL? IT’S OUT OF OUR HANDS
Despite a run of awful decisions the Premier League can’t change the handball law ...and refs are victims just like the angry players
THE Premier League is stuck with the controversial rule change on handball for penalties because it is powerless to alter it.
English football’s top flight had to adopt the amendment to fall into line with the rest of Europe, and now it is causing huge unrest following the controversial penalty awards at the weekend against Tottenham’s Eric Dier and Joel Ward of Crystal Palace.
League chiefs cannot unilaterally dump it during the season because FIFA and the law-making body, the International Football Association Board (IFAB), determine the rules each summer.
They do though have some leeway in the interpretation of the rule, which states that a penalty kick must be given if the ball strikes a player’s arm or hand below the shoulder in an “unnatural position”, regardless of intent.
So the Premier League can tweak the dial and advise its referees that incidents like Ward’s penalty should not necessarily be awarded.
Ward’s Crystal Palace team-mate Andros Townsend was staggered by that spot-kick award and claimed: “The game’s gone.”
The rule change has already led to six penalties for handball compared to 19 for the whole of last season and just six in the 2017-18 campaign.
Former Premier League referee Dermot Gallagher claims officials are as much “victims” as players and that many are not happy implementing the rule.
“Eric Dier becomes a victim of the law, but Peter Bankes and Kevin Friend at Crystal Palace are equally victims because they have to apply that law,” he said.
“It was accidental I know, but there is no caveat in there to say accidental handball is no longer punishable, so the referee had no choice but to give a penalty.
“I’m sure many of the referees, if not all of them, don’t like this thing where if the arm is slightly extended it’s going to be a penalty.”
Former World Cup referee George Courtney called on FIFA and IFAB to act now because the new rule is becoming “an embarrassment”.
Courtney said: “I feel very sorry for the referees because for me they have lost their independence.
“IFAB have got to do some instant thinking and I have no doubt they will be in touch with FIFA to try and remedy what is becoming an embarrassment in the game.”
The rule change was implemented in many of Europe’s leagues last year – and in Spain’s La Liga the number of penalties for handball rose from 35 in 2018-19 to 48 last season.
Serie A saw an even bigger jump, with 57 spot-kicks awarded for handball last season, an increase of 20.
Italian referees boss Nicola Rizzoli wants fewer “soft penalties”, claiming defenders cannot play with their arms rigidly by their sides.
Rizzoli said: “We cannot take away from the defender the chance to make an instinctive movement. If the arm can no longer be retracted, he should not be punished.
“The goal is to allow the defenders not to play like penguins.”