LA LIGA SHOWS THIS ISN’T GOING AWAY

IF FANS expect the handball furore stirring up the Premier League to calm down, then — judging by La Liga — they should think again. The new rules in force this season in England were introduced in Spain at the start of last season and it has been chaos ever since. By March last season in La Liga, more penalties had been awarded for handball than in the entire previous campaign. The increase meant that the head of the referees’ technical committee, Carlos Velasco Carballo, had to try to clarify things. But his comments underlined the confusion for referees, fans and players. ‘The rules of the game say it’s a penalty if the hand is at shoulder height,’ said Carballo. ‘And that it’s not a penalty if the arms are tight down by the sides of the body. And that it is also not a penalty if the hands are in a natural position. But from 10 degrees (away from body) to 85 degrees (still not at shoulder height), what do we mean by natural position?’ The bad news is there has been no calming down of the handball controversy in Spain so far this season. On Saturday,

Betis defender Marc Bartra was adjudged to have handled, despite Real Madrid striker Borja Mayoral appearing to push him into the ball. Betis coach Manuel Pellegrini, the former Manchester City and West Ham boss, complained of having to beat ‘Real Madrid and VAR’ and could be banned for up to four games. Last season, Sevilla defender Jules Kounde summed up defenders’ concerns when he said: ‘It’s difficult for defenders because we can’t play without using our arms.’ Just as in England, games are still being stopped to rule over incidents that have gone almost unnoticed in real time.

THE average first innings score in a Test match is around 325. Suppose the ICC introduced a new rule which, overnight, altered a decent total to 850? That is what the new handball law has done to english football.

It has impacted the game so dramatically it can only be an aberration. It is impossible to justify such a seismic effect. FIFA’s arbiters have not changed a rule; they have changed a sport.

The greatest number of penalties awarded in a Premier League season — the modern era is our only realistic comparison here — is 112 in 2009-10. Coming out of Sunday’s games there had been 20 given already, in just 26 matches. At this rate there will be 292 penalties this season — so 2.6 times the record rate. That is not fair, logical or reasonable.

Take any mean statistic in sport and multiply it by 2.6 and the ludicrousness of this becomes apparent. The average score in the NBA last season was 111.8. What rule change would be required to make that 290.6? A ban on defensive players jumping? A basket six times the size? hitting the backboard counts as three points? The average driving distance on the 2019 PGA Tour was 293.8 yards. What if technology stretched that to 763.8 yards? Par fives could be reached in one shot, with a middling iron. That’s no longer golf. But it’s also just a multiplication of 2.6.

And, remember, the example here is not the average number of penalties, but the record. The average is low 80s. We’re almost a quarter of the way to that number already and four teams haven’t played three games yet.

So this is wrong. It doesn’t matter whether you can see what the officials were trying to do. It doesn’t matter that they had the game’s best interests at heart. This is a terrible mistake and, if it is not corrected, the sole rationale would be that certain teams have already been so affected that it can only be fair if every club is equally disadvantaged over 38 matches.

No way to run a game, though, is it, all lurching swings and 180 degree turns? Last season, the rules were unfairly weighted towards defenders. A ball could strike a defensive arm in the

penalty area and be viewed as accidental, but if it so much as glanced a player who was on the attack, anywhere in the build-up to a goal, that was a foul.

When Tottenham played Sheffield United, a ball was kicked against Lucas Moura as he fell after being tripped, but it rebounded to Harry Kane, who scored. The verdict? Handball and a disallowed goal. For the restart, Tottenham did not even get a free-kick for the foul tackle.

When West Ham played Sheffield United the ball was headed against Declan Rice as he ran. Sheffield United’s John Egan was actually across Rice’s body to divert the ball off his chest and on to his arm. It was a point-blank collision, impossible to avoid. Robert Snodgrass then scored, and VAR intervened, ruling against the oblivious Rice. Everyone agreed the system was a joke. So IFAB looked at it and came up with something worse.

A handball rule that remained punitive — Moura and Rice would still be judged to have handled under the new laws — but now widened its net to target innocent defenders, too. And as defensive handballs often take place in the penalty area, an even greater corruption of the game is taking place.

Yet we all know why we’re here. on August 25, 2018, Willy Boly of Wolves scored with a hand against Manchester City. He didn’t mean to. Joao Moutinho crossed, Boly arrived at the far post, missed the ball but accidentally diverted it into the net. He didn’t try to cheat, he just got lucky, because the handball wasn’t spotted and the goal stood. And that, plainly, wasn’t right.

So if a rule had been introduced to ensure no player could score with a hand or arm, even accidentally, that would have solved the problem. What has followed is the work of fevered former officials, like Pierluigi Collina ( right), seeking involvement.

First, any handball in the build-up got caught in the net, followed by an attempt to impose black and white judgments on an area that would be healthier left grey. VAR has caused this by promoting the idea we can make perfect judgments, previously beyond the capability of officials. That was the promise: perfection. Now we will always know whether a shot is over the line, or a player is offside or a ball is handled. Except that isn’t true. Even goal-line technology proved fallible when Aston Villa played Sheffield United last season while, for offsides, precision has hardly eradicated feelings of injustice, particularly as the moment a pass is played cannot be recorded as precisely as the movement of a forward’s armpit or toe. Yet handball is the literal game-changer because it attempts to make finite an aspect of football that was more fairly judged by individual perception.

As Roy Hodgson, the Crystal Palace manager, argued, handball was about intent. Perhaps about advantage, too. Kai Havertz did not intend to handle the ball late against West Brom, but Chelsea certainly gained when he did because the move eventually led to their equaliser. Nobody would have complained had that been given as a foul.

Equally, there have always been penalties awarded against players like Joel Ward of Crystal Palace, who protested the ball merely struck his arm as he tried to get it out of the way against Everton. Tough: some get given, some do not. That was football and we accepted its contradictions because we could always follow its logic, and see both sides of the argument.

The current situation is unfathomable. Eric Dier receives a glancing blow he could not avoid: penalty. Havertz watches the ball come in, misjudges, handles and gains an obvious benefit: no foul. We were better off before because, amid the inconsistency, there was still consistency: it was the referee’s judgment, his call, and he was sincere in making it. You could disagree, but at least you understood. This is nonsensical.

HoCKEY has a foot fault rule which, when first witnessed, appears harsh. Pretty much, if the ball hits a player’s foot, it’s a foul and a free hit is awarded. Even that law, 9.11, however, contains a caveat. ‘It is not always an offence if the ball hits the foot, hand or body of a field player. The player only commits an offence if they gain an advantage or if they position themselves with the intention of stopping the ball in this way.’

In practice? Everyone very quickly learns to adjust their feet, and good players are very skilled at winning free hits. To a football person watching, then, hockey seems draconian because there is so little room for accident or misadventure. Yet that’s oK because it’s hockey. And those are necessary rules. If umpires were not so hot on ball to foot, everyone would be getting away with casual infringements all game and the sport would be ruined.

Yet that was not the problem with football. There has not been a spate of handballs in recent years, outfield players picking it up, running with it, bouncing it, patting it into touch, punching it out at corners. Television replays have picked up the odd outlier, like the Boly goal, that could have been righted with minimal impact. Instead the rulemakers elected to fix what did not need fixing and, in doing so, changed the sport.

Last season, fans watched on average 0.24 penalties a game. That figure has now trebled. Yet more goals do not equate to more fun. No mere rule change should make a sport unrecognisable to its constituency.