UEFA Handball Guidelines: European Football Board Request

A group of top European managers and former players, including England boss Gareth Southgate, have called on UEFA to issue new guidelines on handball interpretation. The new UEFA Football Board, which met for the first time this week and includes Southgate, Rio Ferdinand, Gareth Bale, and Robbie Keane, has recommended that no handball offence should be called on a player if the ball is previously deflected from his own body and does not go towards the goal. An exception to this would be if a player scores immediately after such contact with the hand or arm. The board also said that not every handball after a shot at goal should result in a caution and urged UEFA to launch an initiative towards the International Football Association Board (IFAB) to ensure a player should only be sent off for a handball which denies a goalscoring opportunity if they deliberately or intentionally touch the ball with their hand or arm. Otherwise, a yellow card should be issued. UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin has said he “absolutely doesn’t understand” the handball law and that it is “really obscure”. UEFA technical director and chief of football, Zvonimir Boban, chaired the Football Board meeting and said that they can make the handball rule more consistent and aligned with the game’s true nature. The handball law states it is an offence if a player deliberately touches the ball with their hand or arm, or if the ball hits the hand or arm when a player is deemed to have made their body unnaturally bigger. Former Premier League referee Peter Walton has called on the IFAB to ensure consistent interpretation of the handball law across competitions in order to avoid confusion. He believes that no changes need to be made to the wording of the law, but rather that a consistent approach needs to be taken across competitions.