Handball!?!
Two key "handball" penalties have got me thinking about how utterly bonkers the current handball rule is.
The penalty at Fir Park against Nicholson of Motherwell in the dying seconds of Wednesday's match against Celtic made national and international headlines. The penalty awarded against Kyziridis of Hearts at the end of the first half of Saturday's title decider at Celtic Park attracted next to no comment. Does anyone seriously argue that either player handled the ball deliberately?
The handball offence, from the first codification of association football rules in 1863 until 2019, was expressed simply: it was handball if a player deliberately touched the ball with their hand or arm. Accidental contact was not an offence. Deliberate use of the hand or arm was.
Referees were expected to apply common sense. Was the arm moving towards the ball? Was the player's hand in a position designed to intercept it? Did the contact appear accidental? Did the ball strike a player's arm from close range with no time to react? These were questions that referees were perfectly well placed to answer.
Then in 2019 came the addition of "unnaturally bigger" into the definition. It became handball if a player
"touches the ball with their hand/arm when it has made their body unnaturally bigger. A player is considered to have made their body unnaturally bigger when the position of their hand/arm is not a consequence of, or justifiable by, the player's body movement for that specific situation. By having their hand/arm in such a position, the player takes a risk of their hand/arm being hit by the ball and being penalised."
That new paragraph — and the chaos it has produced — is what football now has to live with.
The deliberate handball rule served football well for 156 years. The fix is simple: go back to it.