Keith Hackett, who formerly officiated at Premier League level, is calling for the handball law to be amended so that only deliberate acts are punished, rather than incidents like Sterling’s which seemed accidental.
Newcastle United legend Alan Shearer voiced comparable frustrations following events in the Premier League this weekend, and Hackett told Ibrox News: “The match officials in this situation under the handball law have no alternative other than to award a penalty kick.“A red card for the denial of an obvious goal is not issued on the basis that the goalkeeper had a high probability of stopping the ball from entering the goal. Once again, the handball law creates controversy, and I support Alan Shearer that this law needs to change and we start to emphasise the word ‘deliberate’ action before awarding a free kick or penalty kick.”
Speaking about the disallowed late equaliser for Burnley against Brentford due to handball, Shearer said on Match of the Day: “I just hate the handball rule. Whether it’s today’s decision at Burnley or any of the other controversial ones this season, they have messed it up.
What is law on handball rule?
“Now, they’ll say that things are better in the Premier League than they areabroad, but that doesn’t wash with me. It is so messed up in every single way, there is ‘deliberate’, ‘proximity’, ‘natural’, ‘unnatural.’ There are so many different ways they have to interpret things and it isn’t fit for purpose. For fans to be sat in the stadium and waiting for three, four minutes, or for however long it took today at Turf Moor, it doesn’t seem right and it isn’t fair.”
Lawmakers IFAB outline: For the purpose of assessing handball offences, the upper limit of the arm aligns with the bottom of the armpit. Not every contact between a player’s hand/arm and the ball constitutes an infringement. It becomes an offence if a player intentionally handles the ball with their hand/arm, for instance by moving the hand/arm towards the ball.
“Touches the ball with their hand/armwhen it has made their body unnaturally bigger. A player is considered to have made their body unnaturally bigger when the position of their hand/