It is well established that using your arms or hands in the game of football is not allowed.
Yet the handball rule in football has been frustrating and difficult for players, coaches, fans, and even officials to comprehend what represents an infraction and what contact is permitted.
In recent years, especially since the introduction of video review (VAR), the rules have come under fire due to the varying interpretations and gray area which leads to inconsistent application across leagues, competitions, and even from game to game within the same competitions.
The Sporting News brings you a complete look at what the rule currently states as written, what it means, how it's being interpreted across various leagues, and how outspoken individuals are hoping it will be changed in the near future.
MORE: Read about the handball decision from PSG vs Newcastle & why it could force a rule change
Football handball rules and FIFA guidelines
The International Football Association Board (IFAB) is the body charged with setting, overseeing, altering, and releasing the Laws of the Game which all football leagues across the world use as a universal set of rules.
In this, IFAB have done their best to define a handball offence, but for years there has been uncertainty and gray areas. The latest updates to the handball rule came for the 2022/23 season, and no updates to the rule were made for the 2023/24 season.
IFAB define what part of the arm is against the rules to use, which has changed. Back in 2019, IFAB permitted contact with the top of the arm, colloquially dubbed the "sleeve rule," which gives players some leeway with using their shoulder.
This means a ball which touches the upper portion of a player's arm will not be considered a handball, and leaves only blatant handball fouls to be punished.
The rule reads, "the upper boundary of the arm is in line with the bottom of the armpit." There are also diagrams in the Laws of the Game to help with this concept.
Then, the rule details every possible handball offence. It reads as follows:
It is an offence if a player:
deliberately touches the ball with their hand/arm, for example moving the hand/arm towards the ball
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
scores in the opponents’ goal:
directly from their hand/arm, even if accidental, including by the goalkeeper
immediately after the ball has touched their hand/arm, even if accidental
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Does intent matter in handball rules?
The way the rule is written, intent does not matter in specific instances where a player makes his body unnaturally bigger while handling the ball.
The first bullet point in the Laws of the Game cited above does allow referees some leeway to judge intent and penalise a player for intentionally handling the ball ("deliberately"), but the second and third bullet points, regarding a player making their body bigger and scoring a goal, do not allow for inadvertent handballs.
In fact, the rule as written, specifically mentions that intent does not matter: the phrase "when a player has made their body unnaturally bigger" notes that players take calculated risks with certain movements, even if not done with the intention of handling the ball. The rule reads: "by having their hand/arm in such a[n unnatural] position, the player takes a risk of their hand/arm being hit by the ball and being penalised."
Furthermore, in the final section, the rule adds the language "even if accidental" to clarify that any unnatural touch with the hand/arm, whether intentional or not, should be penalised.
So in summary, intent does not matter in judging handball offences, and should not factor into an official's decision regarding a handball offence. The only time intent comes into play for a referee's decision would be whether to send a player off for deliberately handling a ball to prevent a goal.
However, there is one major exception. The rule does make a specific exception for handball occurrences committed as long as a player's body position is "a consequence of, or justifiable by, the player’s body movement for that specific situation." Then a handball is not whistled.
This exception largely comes into play for a defensive player sliding to make a block. It is generally considered impossible to make a sliding movement without using an arm on the ground for support. Thus, the use of an arm for support while sliding is a "justifiable" action for that particular body movement, and therefore a ball which strikes a support arm would not be considered an "unnatural" position even if extended from the body.
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Is it a handball if the ball deflects off a player's body?
In the current reading of the rule, yes, a handball is penalised regardless of deflection off another player's or the same player's body. However, some leagues have varying interpretations of the rule, and some are more strict about this than others.
According to the new Premier League guidelines which were released ahead of the 2020/21 season, a deflection is only taken into account if it makes a clear difference to the ball striking the player's hand or arm, assuming the arm is extended in an 'unnatural' position. Furthermore, should the ball deflect off a player and then onto their own arm or hand, this should not automatically be given as a penalty. This, of course, leads to plenty of debate: in the Champions League, when Tino Livramento was penalised for handball in the dying seconds against Paris Saint-Germain, some would argue it was a correct decision as his arm was raised to the side when the ball struck it (and therefore in an 'unnatural' position), while others would say it was unjust to give the penalty given the ball only hit his arm because it deflected off his knee first.
Had that of happened in the Premier League, a penalty may not have been awarded given allowances are made by officials for when the ball strikes another part of the body first, prior to it hitting the player's arm.
Newcastle's frustration here stems from reports that in April 2023, the UEFA football board — an independent advisory group — recommended that "Uefa should clarify that no handball offence should be called on a player if the ball is previously deflected from his own body".
However, UEFA did not follow these recommendations and as a result the new law wasn't implemented.
This portion of the handball rule has been criticised as unnecessarily harsh, and could be reviewed in the coming years by individual leagues or IFAB, subject to change.
Is there a ball to hand rule?
The way the law is currently written, there is no ball to hand rule.
This often goes hand-in-hand with intent, as the idea of "ball to hand" being unavoidable for a defensive player lends itself to a lack of intent to handle the ball.
As the law is written, a defensive player assumes the risk of their arm's unnatural position, and therefore ball to hand does not apply. A defensive player's risk assumption predisposes him to the ball potentially being kicked into his arm without time to react, and therefore it would be a penalised offence regardless of their ability or inability to react in time.
How UEFA handball rules are different
IFAB's Laws of the Game cannot possibly address every single situation and every scenario that could unfold during a match.
The Laws, like any codified rules, will always be somewhat open to interpretation. Therefore, every league, competition, and governing body has its own guidelines as to how to interpret the rules based on how that body wishes their product to play out.
European governing body UEFA, has moved to do just that with guidelines for the 2023/24 season already released. Most importantly, the European governing body wishes to relax the whistling of handball offences with regards to deflections, as well as relaxing the punishment for yellow and red cards shown.
The guidelines for 2023/24 suggest that "no handball offence should be called on a player if the ball is previously deflected from his own body, and, in particular, when the ball does not go towards the goal." Again, this would explain Newcastle's frustration at conceding that penalty against PSG.
UEFA also states that "not every handball should automatically lead to a caution after every shot at goal, as anticipated by the current guidelines." As currently written, UEFA guidelines encourage officials to essentially give automatic yellow cards for handball offences in the penalty area which result in a penalty. Under the new 2023/24 guidelines, that would be relaxed.
Finally, the new UEFA guidelines also state that they will petition IFAB to change the rule of an automatic red card for denying a goalscoring opportunity by handling the ball, specifically to take intent into account with this decision. Thus, under the UEFA suggestion, the laws would be changed to show a red card only in the situation of an intentional handball to deny a goal, whereas a yellow card would be shown in situations where intent was not clear.
UEFA calls for clarifications to a handball law it applies more strictly, and with a lack of common sense, than any competition governing body in the world.
— Dale Johnson (@DaleJohnsonESPN) April 25, 2023
The handball law isn't great, but it's UEFA's choice for it to be as bad as it is in the UCL, UEL and UECL. pic.twitter.com/g3N9ps5JUf
These recommendations come after UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin told the Men In Blazers podcast that "nobody in the world understands when there's handball or not."
"We had the best coaches in the world in the room," Ceferin said in reference to a meeting of the UEFA Football Board. "We showed them a situation where a ball hits the hand of a player and we said penalty or no penalty, half said penalty, half said no penalty.
"Those are coaches of the best teams in the world. I think that the referee on the pitch should decide because otherwise we don't need a referee anymore. We can just have a machine that says handball or no handball, and I don't like it. I don't like it. We have to, and we will start working on that to tell the referees that they have to decide if it's a natural move or not, and so on."
Handball rules different for attacker vs defender
The handball law is written in such a way that it creates separate applications for penalising attacking players and defending players. Defending players are subject to all the previously discussed laws, attacking players are not. Instead, the rule is very simple for an attacking player — if the ball strikes their arm while in the midst of a goal scoring move, regardless of arm position, intent, or any other qualifiers, a goal shall be chalked off.
The reason for this rule is because IFAB determined that goals resulting directly from situations where the ball strikes the hand or arm of an attacking player goes against the spirit of the game.
This came to a head when Arsenal forward Kai Havertz saw a goal disallowed against Aston Villa on December 9, 2023. The bobbling ball ping-ponged around the goal mouth, first hitting into the hand of Aston Villa defender Matty Cash before striking the arm of Havertz.
As PGMOL chief Howard Webb explained in the days later, the decision was correct because any handball offence by a player scoring a goal is deemed a foul, while defenders have a different threshold they must meet.
"This is actually a really good on-field decision," Webb says. "It's not intentional, but it still has to be penalised. The idea was that if it comes off the arm it can't be a fair goal. We see this kind of situation leading to a goal being disallowed when it hits Havertz's arm and yet a few seconds earlier it hits Matty Cash's arm as well, equally accidentally, but he doesn't get penalised, he can't be penalised because he's got to commit a different offence as a defender, he's got to make his arm unnaturally bigger or deliberately handle the ball...We're working with a different threshold for an attacker."
PGMOL chief Howard Webb explains why Kai Havertz’s goal was right to be disallowed in Arsenal’s 1-0 defeat against Aston Villa. pic.twitter.com/vvIqVhDjBk
— NBC Sports Soccer (@NBCSportsSoccer) December 12, 2023
Will the handball rule in football be changed?
It's looking increasingly likely that the handball rule in football will receive an update sooner rather than later.
In the aftermath of the highly controversial decision to award PSG a 98th minute penalty against Newcastle in the 2023/24 Champions League group stage, CBS rules analyst Christina Unkel stated that she believes IFAB will issue new guidance on the handball rule in early 2024.
While explaining that the rule was applied correctly in the particular incident, Unkel said the rule as written has caused too many problems to remain as-is.
“I don’t like the current interpretation in how we are required to apply it right now," Unkel said to the crew of Kate Abdo, Jamie Carragher, and Micah Richards on air in the United States. "The football advisory board has specifically said in March they will provide another clarification, because we have gone too objective with the handling offense and it creates harsh decisions such as this one.”
Unkel's use of "objective" and "subjective" are important. VAR has attempted, in recent years, to standardize decision-making as to create a uniform set of rules to be applied across all matches — thus, her use of "objective."
However, because football is a fluid game which is difficult to adjudicate the same in every possible moment, Unkel speculates that IFAB will revert back to a more "subjective" rule which may be tougher to apply on a purely consistent basis, but will allow for an understanding that each decision in each moment is unique.
"It IS a penalty."
— CBS Sports Golazo ⚽️ (@CBSSportsGolazo) November 28, 2023
Our rules expert @ChristinaUnkel explains why PSG were awarded a penalty against Newcastle. 🍿 pic.twitter.com/rt3utebW4z
How Premier League handball rules are different
As with UEFA, the English Premier League has also issued guidelines to its officials for how to manage handball offences.
Released in 2020, these guidelines are quite strict and give defensive players very little room for error with regards to committing handball offences.
According to the Premier League guidelines, a player will be penalised for handball if:
- The hand/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.
- Immediately after touching the ball with the arm, even accidentally, the player scores a goal or creates a goal-scoring opportunity.