ITV's Euro 2024 commentators Ally McCoist and Clive Tyldesley made their outrage clear after Joachim Andersen was penalised for handball just moments after having what would have been a goal disallowed for offside at the other end.
'Rip the whole thing up and start again', was Tyldesley’s plea in his final game as an ITV commentator.
The thing with that is: they actually did rip it up and start again, quite recently. Nobody was happy with the old handball rule, which required for it to be intentional – effectively asking the referee to become a mind-reader.
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No version of handball has ever pleased anybody
That version of the rule was never, in fact, applied with much consideration given to intent, because the vast majority of handballs have always been like the one in the Denmark game: a player’s arm outstretched innocently, but indisputably struck in a manner that disrupted the flight of the ball. Cases like Diego Maradona against England, Thierry Henry against Ireland or Luis Suarez against Ghana have always been the exception.
Not so very long ago at all, that led to complaints that the handball rule was too subjective and open to interpretation, leading to inconsistencies. Before VAR’s introduction, it was, if anything, more common to hear complaints that clear handballs had been missed.
Now the laws have been changed, as with so many others, to suit VAR’s need for a degree of objectivity – and the complaint has now become that the law is too harsh, punishing cases like Andersen’s with unduly harsh punishment.
There are times when quite simply, the wrong decision has been reached, sometimes with massive consequences - but most exist in that grey area. Could Andersen have got out of the way of that ball at that distance? No. Could he have had his arm in a different position? Yes. Did he put his arm there in an attempt to block the ball? No. Was his body shape made bigger by it being there when it didn’t need to be? Yes.
Where do we sit with all that taken into account, then? Should there actually be a difference, in the same way that a penalty is awarded whether it’s a rash, cynical foul inside the box and a clumsy, well-intentioned one?
For me, that would have been a handball under any version of the rules except for the imaginary ‘only if it’s entirely, undoubtedly intentional’ version that people pretend once used to be the case. The talk of it being made by snickometer was transparently nonsense: you could see with your own eyes that he made contact, and that he raised his hand towards the path of the ball. However, my WhatsApp inbox contains plenty of people who profoundly disagree with me, and that’s honestly fine: I genuinely see their perspective.
Kai Havertz fires Germany into the lead from the spot 🔥A whirlwind five minutes as the goal comes moments after Denmark were denied the opener by VAR at the other end 😬#Euro2024 | #GERDEN pic.twitter.com/LUhDADK8SXJune 29, 2024
The issue, really, is not the way the handball rule is applied; I’m not convinced there is any suggestion for reform on that front that would not always contain harsh decisions and questionable let-offs.
But I have a humble, hasty suggestion that in reality would probably just complicate things further. In cases like these, the issue, really, is not the handball decision, but the fact that the punishment does not feel like it fits the crime.
As much as I thought it was a handball, there is no question that a penalty feels much too harsh an outcome relative to the offence. It’s a million pound fine for a £50 crime.
So, in much the same way that an intentional foul to stop a clear goalscoring opportunity is a red card and a penalty, but an earnest but mistimed tackle is only a yellow and a penalty…could we not make it so that a penalty is only awarded for handling inside the box where the handball is judge either to 1) be intentional or 2) stop the ball from going in the net? Otherwise, give an indirect free kick, like for a backpass.
That would make these grey area decisions feel far less harsh – but if it were implemented, we absolutely guarantee the old debates about intent would continue to rage on just the same.
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