WRONG ARM OF THE LAW
Former top ref blasts new handball rule and insists football chiefs are killing the game
CHARLIE RICHMOND watched referee Bobby Madden point to the spot twice at Fir Park and fears football is in danger of death by a thousand cuts.
The former Grade One and FIFAlisted whistler believes convoluted rule changes to the handball law are proving a recipe for disaster as two controversial penalty awards for Rangers helped them claim the points at Motherwell.
Our game is up in arms at the tinkering to the laws with Tottenham also suffering from a last-minute spot-kick farce against Newcastle to put the focus firmly on officials and a law that no longer allows common-sense to prevail.
Richmond is convinced the bureaucratic blazers have bungled by removing “deliberate” from the rule book after changes by IFAB took intent out of the question.
He said: “They are killing the game and this is the problem with the IFAB meetings. It’s not players and referees who are proposing rule changes, it’s often people in administration posts who are altering the wording of rules.
“We need to go back to the people who have played the game or refereed if we need to make changes to the laws of the game.
“The handball rule is now so vague and broad it’s little wonder there’s so many being awarded as referees are being put into an impossible situation. It’s no wonder some don’t know what to do.
“Is his arm in an unnatural position, is it natural, is he making himself bigger? What a carry on, it’s a nonsense.
“I watched the Motherwell game with Rangers and clearly there is controversy over both penalty decisions Madden awarded.
“The issue is simple, as soon as they took the word ‘deliberately’ out of the handball rule, the onus fell completely on the referee. Now we have all these issues arising and debates about whether an arm or hand was in an unnatural position but you can argue until you’re blue in the face about them.
“Removing ‘deliberately’ is key, it should only be a penalty is a player deliberately moves his arm towards the ball. It’s not ball to hand, it’s hand to ball, it shouldn’t be so complicated.”
Richmond’s own view of Madden’s two big calls are that one was spot on and the other should never have been given but he admits his old counterpart has been thrust into making huge decisions that are a thankless task.
He said: “I look at the first
penalty and the ball is played into the box and Bevis Mugabi is completely duped by the Rangers player Scott Arfield ducking out of the road.
“What exactly was Mugabi supposed to do? He moved his hand down the way and Madden deemed it to be a hand motion downwards towards the ball.
“That’s why I think he’s awarded the penalty.
“The second penalty was absolutely the correct decision. Liam Grimshaw handles the ball and if you can get your hand up to your face you can also get it away.
“Grimshaw has time to react, as he brings his arm up into his face and sometimes you just need to
IT’S SHAMBLES take a ball in the face. My sympathy is for the referee as the rule is forcing them into makingg what is effectively a judgementment call.
“You can’t slaughterhter any referee for making that judgementdgement call as they have taken everything into consideration beforefore awarding a penalty.”
A new breed of youthful but pedantic sticklers to the new rules are another concernoncern for Richmond who is worried robotic referees with no football backgroundund are another threat to football.
He said: “The bigger picture here is the he promotion of young g whippersnapper referees and this urge to push them through rather than using men who understand the game. “These guys don’t necessarily need to haveh played professionally, a good amateuram level or junior level is what II’m talking about. “PeoplPeople who understand just what is a penalty and what isn’t. “We aare bringing through a generation generatio of theoretical referees and theyth see every rule as a theoretical theo decision which has to be taken.” The rules were introduced in Serie A and La Liga last season se and saw the number n of penalties rise from fr 37 to 57 and 35 to 48 in the respective leagues.
The handball debacle is becoming a weekly occurrence on both sides of the border and Richmond has a simple solution to bring a stop to the mayhem.
He said: “How do we resolve all of these issues? We need to change the laws of the game for the better of the game of football.
“A penalty is when a player deliberately puts his hand up or sideways to stop the progression of the ball to deny a goal or a promising attack.
“The new rules are bringing the game into disrepute. Sometimes the people amending these rules are not footballers or referees and that’s why we see all of the chaos.
“There are nonsense changes such as the vanishing spray which was brought in by a doctor and we first used it at the last World Cup and we all thought it was wonderful. But who cares about it now in the grand scale of things.
“We have bigger fish to fry in terms of decisions which cost teams points and sometimes promotions or relegations.
“Are we just changing the laws of the game just for the sake of changing them? If it’s not broken then don’t fix it.”