Premier League will lobby for change to handball law with referees told they can be more lenient
The Premier League will formally lobby for a change to the handball law to stop the kind of penalty being given that cost Tottenham Hotspur victory against Newcastle United.
Referees in the world’s richest league have this week been told to be more lenient when it comes to handball following an outcry over a stricter interpretation of a law that has seen a surge in spot-kicks awarded for the offence this season.
However, that law is unequivocal when it comes to players who have raised an arm or hand above “shoulder level”, as Eric Dier did when the ball struck him in Spurs’s 1-1 draw with Newcastle on Sunday.
That incident, which saw Dier hit from behind as he was jumping, so enraged top-flight managers that they were ready to make a direct appeal to football’s governing bodies to overrule the law.
Clubs were yesterday said to have agreed for the Premier League to find a way to eliminate similar handball decisions in future.
League bosses were said to have already made contact with the game’s lawmakers, the International Football Association Board, and were prepared to lobby for a law change if necessary – one unlikely to take effect until next season at the earliest.
The move was also said to be backed by referees’ chief Mike Riley, who is behind the Premier League’s more lenient interpretation of the law for handball offences where a player’s arm or hand is not raised above shoulder level.
That new interpretation will consider the following factors:
Whether the arm is in an expected position given a player’s action, including whether it is being used for balance and/or protection.
Where it is clear that the player does not have the ability to react.
Whether the contact with the arm clearly blocks a direct shot towards the goal.
Half of the six penalties awarded for handball this season would not have been given under the new interpretation: Crystal Palace’s at Manchester United, Everton’s at Palace, and – most controversially – Southampton’s against Tottenham.
The other half – Liverpool’s against Leeds United, Manchester United’s at Brighton & Hove Albion, and Newcastle’s at Spurs – would still be punishable, the latter two under the “shoulder level” clause.
The handball law was changed a year ago but English football implemented the amendment only this season after Fifa took over the running of the Video Assistant Referees system from IFAB, with the game’s governing body insisting the system had to be applied uniformly.
Newcastle manager Steve Bruce had branded the Premier League’s interpretation of the rule “a total nonsense” even after his team salvaged a draw with a penalty in added time at Tottenham.
Roy Hodgson had called the rule “completely unacceptable” after Palace’s defeat to Everton and said it was “destroying” his enjoyment of football.
Jose Mourinho predicted that, “for some”, it could become a tactic in football to simply get into the penalty area and kick the ball as hard as possible in the direction of an opponent’s arm.
