At what point does attacking play start? To my understanding, when you’re attacking, and there is any contact, deliberate or not, with the ball from the attackers hand/arm in the build up, it’s deemed a handball. I mean, they were reviewing Haaland’s second goal for handball in case it brushed his elbow even though if there was contact, it would have done nothing to assist him in scoring that goal. Then, when defending, it has to be a deliberate handball or your hand is in an unnatural position when it hits the ball. Distance between hand and ball from when the ball is struck and speed of that ball is also considered. All well and good.
But now, same game, Chelsea vs City. City have the ball with their goalkeeper who kicks it against Walkers hand. If they had been defending and a Chelsea player kicked it against his hand, no penalty or free kick. Fair enough considering the above criteria. But if City had possession wouldn’t that then be an attacking phase? And if so, wouldn’t ANY handball be a handball?
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They need to look at what constitutes an unnatural position. Defenders need to jump. You need to naturally swing your arms to be able to jump. Insisting this is an unnatural position is madness.
I’m a high school and college ref. We don’t differentiate between attacking / defending when considering a hand ball. My rule of thumb, regardless of the written rule, generally speaking is the did the hand play the ball or did the ball play the hand. And if the ball played the hand, was the hand in a natural position and did the offender have time / ability to move hand or play the ball some other way. That’s always been my criteria for deciding a handball.
This is what the rule should be, but unfortunately IFAB bizarrely changed it for VAR and TV…
Nah mate, you can basically pick up the ball with 2 hands and walk across the field. Kind of like rugby. As long as you are not the one scoring the goal it’s allowed.
In defense however, you are not allowed to have arms. Unless you’re wearing a very specific shirt.
Your understanding isn’t quite right. Under most circumstances, you should use the normal considerations like whether the arm was in a natural position. The only instance when this isn’t the case is if an attacker scores directly after the ball has touched their hand, in which case the goal must be disallowed no matter what (which is why they were checking Haaland’s goal).
Walker’s handball should have been a handball. Anthony Taylor giveth and taketh away.
I don’t think it was in the box so it wasn’t reviewable
I’m sorry but that makes zero fucking sense as a handball.
The goalkeeper is clearing the ball with a big kick upfield, his own defender is tussling (well, pushed) by opponent into the path of the ball, it hits his arm. You think that should be a fucking free kick? What possible advantage is he gaining by blocking his own goalkeepers clearance?
Handball in football is already in a ridiculous place and now we have fans wanting handball for defenders accidentally blocking their own goalkeepers clearance with zero advantage attempted or gained. It’s absolute fucking insanity
You’re right.
But this is what is totally wrong with the new hand ball rule.
Walker doesn’t want to handle the ball, he’s running back towards his keeper who is making a clearance, as a defender the last thing you want to do is deflect the ball in anyway.
He puts the brakes on, the striker gives him a little nudge, his hand moves out naturally to balance and Ederson makes a slight miss kick and the ball brushes Walkers hand.
He never intentionally handled the ball in a gazillion years, he has zero benefit to handle the ball and clearly didn’t make any move to handle it deliberately.
Nobody, and I mean nobody had any issue with the handball rule before it got changed to accompany VAR and it should be reverted back ASAP as it is farcical.
I think no one having a problem with the handball rule before VAR was hardly universally accepted.
Either way, intentional or not, there has to be an objective way to look at a situation. Unfortunately, Prem refs have screwed it up so much that the rules appear more subjective than they should. The widely accepted letter of the law is that Walker’s outstretched arm, one not in a natural position, handling the ball is a handball.
Reece had a handball and red card issued over a significantly closer “natural position” than Walkers with the same ref.
Walkers hand was in a natural position though, he was decelerating (being Walker this would be a significant slowing down process), whilst simultaneously looking over his shoulder. The forward can’t recall who it was, gave him a slight nudge (just part of the game) and so Walkers hand raised slightly away from his body to provide a balancing pivot. This was entirely normal and it’s OK that players hands move up and down when slowing and accelerate at tremendous speeds.
James also shouldn’t have been penalised in the example you gave.
If that same situation happened for you and we scored from the free kick we would never hear the end of it. That handball had absolutely no effect on the game whatsoever, so why give a free kick for it when that will have an effect?
Because it’s the rules?