That handball conundrum

DID you see that match between Everton and Crystal Palace last Saturday evening? I am not sure that Crystal Palace deserved to lose that match that saw Everton pull through, 2-1, seeing the undefeated in three matches thus far while the Roy Hodgson-managed side tumbled to their first loss in three fixtures.

Palace defender Joel Ward was assessed with a handball inside the box after Everton’s Lucas Digne blasted a shot from almost point blank range. Ward never budged and the ball hardly traveled far as it struck his hand.

Although referee Kevin Friend reviewed the incident on the monitor, he still called for a penalty.

All pundits who followed and called the match thought it was an egregious call.

Hodgson rightly bemoaned the call. “I predict what will happen is players will start flicking the ball onto a hand and screaming handball,” he decried. And I agree.

The Football Association submitted a new interpretation of the handball law before the beginning of this Premier League season. Under these new rules, a player will be penalized for handball if:

The hand or the arm is clearly away from the body and outside the “body line.”

The player clearly leans into the path of the ball.

The ball travels some distance.

The ball touches a hand/arm that is clearly raised above the shoulder.

The player falls and the hand/arm is extended laterally or vertically away from the body.

A deflection clearly makes no difference to the ball touching a hand/arm that is clearly extended away from the body and/or above the shoulder.

Digne’s shot didn’t have enough distance nor did Ward have enough time to void the shot.

Former player and current pundit Gary Lineker went on Twitter to offer his thoughts about the matter. He posted a straightjacket with the caption, “Had a few ideas for a new football strip.”

Last season the Virtual Assistant Referee or VAR was highly controversial. Now, for the second successive season, there is another controversial rule change.

For me, the solution lies somewhere in between. The technology is there (VAR). The contention is in the interpretation. Incredible, isn’t it? Human error.

I think the referee should consult whoever is manning VAR remotely and they have to come to an agreement along with either the fourth official or the linesman closest to the action. That way, they can also vote on it.

Since the Premier League is investing so much on technology to improve the game, at the very least, they should come to the correct decision and nothing less.

Let’s see how it plays out for the rest of the campaign.

But let’s end this with the words of pundit Michael Owen who said it best when he said last Saturday afternoon: “Seems like the trouble with the handball is you can either have a very strict rule which maintains consistency but provides for situations like today, or you can allow more interpretation which leads to, ‘ that same handball wasn’t given last week.’”

Can we get this right?