The Mail on Sunday

So what on earth is handball now?

Even Elleray is contradict­ing his own hated law

- By James Sharpe

YOU know it is bad when Kevin De Bruyne, however honestly, claims he does not know the rule any more. You know it is bad when the head of UEFA writes a letter to the world’s governing body pleading for the law to be changed. And you know it is very bad when Frank Lampard brands it ‘universall­y disliked by anyone who plays, watches or supports football’.

The handball law was changed to bring consistenc­y and clarity. Confusion and controvers­y arrived instead. A move to absolve referees of judging whether a handball was deliberate has left them frustrated at being forced to award endless penalties, many of which feel so removed from the essence of what the law was meant to stop.

How can Eric Dier be found guilty when the ball strikes the back of his arm from a yard away when he’s facing the other direction? Even Premier League referees chief Mike Riley admitted that should not be handball and wants the law changed. How can Joel Ward be penalised when a ball is rifled at his arm hanging by his side?

Referees now obsess so much over the arm’s natural position that defenders realise the safest place for them to be is locked behind their back in the most unnatural position of all.

And just when you thought the whole handball process could not get more unclear, the man responsibl­e for it thrusts it into even more confusion. David Elleray, t he former Premier League referee and now technical director at the Internatio­nal Football Associatio­n Board (IFAB), the game’s lawmakers, has had his say. Even he doesn’t like how it’s being used.

‘Some leagues around the world, without naming them, the referees are being too rigid and inflexible,’ said Elleray in an interview with The Times. ‘This is not what football wants or the law intended.’

He didn’t need to name them. Elleray could not have disguised it better had he addressed his complaints to a Mr Rike Miley.

‘The attempt to make it [the handball law] clearer has been interprete­d in different parts too rigidly,’ said Elleray. ‘In some countries, every arm above the shoulder is being penalised.’

Now, this is where Elleray has blurred it all. There is a reason why Premier League referees penalise every arm above the shoulder: that’s what it says in the laws. It is right there on page 104. It is an offence if a player ‘touches the ball with their hand/arm when […] the hand/ arm is above/ beyond their shoulder level’.

For once, the law is clear. There’s an irony here too, one that was not lost on the bosses at Stockley Park.

It was only a few months ago, ahead of the new season, that FIFA, having taken over the VAR reins from IFAB, admonished the Premier League for not applying the laws strictly enough. They were told to get in line on using the pitchside monitor for subjective decisions. They were also told that they must clamp down on handballs, having applied their own looser interpreta­tion last season. Then, they were not applying them strictly enough. Now, if indeed Elleray had the Premier League in mind, he thinks they are applying them too strictly.

The decision to award Newcastle a penalty for Dier’s handball led Riley and the Premier League to ask IFAB if they could loosen their interpreta­tion once again. They asked to take into account the ‘expected’ position of a defender’s arm more, if they were running or jumping, rather than whether it was natural or not, as well as time to react. Permission was granted.

The problem, as Riley explained in a media briefing, was that regardless of the new interpreta­tion, the Dier decision would still have stood because the law still states that any time the ball strikes an arm above the shoulder, it must be penalised.

They were not allowed to deviate from that. And have now been criticised for sticking to it.

So what now? If Elleray wants to stop referees penalising every contact on the arm above the shoulder, change the law. UEFA want it changed. The Premier League too.

At the recent meeting of IFAB’s football and technical advisory panels, which included Arsene Wenger and Luis Figo, it was agreed that further clarificat­ion of the law was required because the current interpreta­tion had not been consistent enough.

Not every contact with the arm, they said, should not be penalised. But as far as above the shoulder is concerned, unless t he l aw is changed, there is no room for interpreta­tion.

Elleray’s comments could well give Riley an excuse to encourage his officials to use more common sense. How can they be admonished for something that the chief lawmakers wants to see?

Either way, this latest confusion leaves you realising it’s not just De Bruyne. Does anyone at all understand the handball law?

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