Premier League referees to be less strict on handball rule

Premier League referees will not impose a hard-line stance on the new handball rule that led to a series of penalties in the women’s World Cup.

Mike Riley, the head of top-flight referees, said there were “still areas of interpretation” around the new rule, which says players should be penalised if the ball strikes their arm in an “unnatural” position.

The managing director of the Professional Game Match Officials Ltd was quoted in The Times saying that video assistant referees – who will be introduced to the Premier League next season – would be told to minimise the disruptive influence of VARS by adopting a “high line of intervention”.

“There are still areas of interpretation around the way the new handball has been written, effectively what you consider to be an unnatural position of hands and arms,” Riley said. “In this country, we have always said – and this is the players and managers saying it to us – that arms are part of the game and, as long as you are not trying to extend your body to block a shot, then there is more scope so that we don’t penalise.”

The new handball rule was introduced to all competitions last month. It says that players take a “risk” by lifting their arm above shoulder height or by making the body “unnaturally bigger”. It adds that players guilty of either act could be penalised even if the handball was not intentional.

Riley said that Premier League referees would not have awarded some of the crucial penalties seen in last season’s Champions League, including the one given against Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Moussa Sissoko in the final, which led to Liverpool’s victory.