A&H

Protecting face with hand

S

Stonewall

New Member
I'd be interested in thoughts on this scenario that I encountered yesterday in a low level U11 match. An attacking IDK on the 6 yard line with the opposition lined up on the goal line.

Pretty venomous shot comes in and a defender blocks it with a hand in front of his face. He hasn't made himself unnaturally bigger as his silhouette is unchanged.

I've pasted the relevant FA LOTG section below but would welcome your thoughts.

  • 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
A combination of silhouette, proximity, age and what football expects made me not give a handball. However, on looking at the good book, it would tick the 'deliberate' bullet point.

What do you think?
 
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The Referee Store
Hi! Huge health warning on this take - I’m still a trainee- but I had a v similar one and didn’t give it either.

For me, i) they weren’t deliberately touching the ball, they were deliberately protecting their face, ii) they weren’t un-naturally bigger as you say and iii) it’d have felt incredibly harsh to say to the (u14) defender ‘no you should have let it sock you tbh’. Feels like a sensible application to wave play on.
 
Talked about before… by the law, it’s deliberate handball. In high level matches it needs to be whistled.

14 and under away from elite - for me - especially 12 and under - I won’t whistle. Common sense. Especially not a penalty or ball with power. If anything, at U9 I might even stop the game, dropped ball, to check if the kid is OK.

Think also about how we instruct the wall at ceremonial free kicks. A lot of referees tell the wall they can put their arm vertically in front of their nose. Same same but different;)
 
Not giving handball for a reflexive, defensive movement to prevent injury sounds sensible to me. @bester thanks for that quote, very helpful. 🙂

I've seen in the PL with VAR replays where it looks like a grey area regarding defensive / deliberate / arm in the wrong place etc where it can take quite a long time to judge it and it may not be completely clear in the end, with a judgement call having to be made. Shame it's not possible to read the player's mind to figure out their intentions for sure. 😛
 
It’s not just sensible, it’s in the magic book in the definition of deliberate:

Deliberate​
An action which the player intended/meant to make; it is not a ‘reflex’ or unintended reaction​

If it is reflexive protection, it isn’t handling. A useful way to think about it is whether the player had time to make a decision to do something else. At professional levels, that amount of time shrinks to almost nothing, as their reflexes have developed to avoid handling. At youth levels, there is a lost more judgment.
 
socal lurker said:
It’s not just sensible, it’s in the magic book in the definition of deliberate:

Deliberate​
An action which the player intended/meant to make; it is not a ‘reflex’ or unintended reaction​

If it is reflexive protection, it isn’t handling. A useful way to think about it is whether the player had time to make a decision to do something else. At professional levels, that amount of time shrinks to almost nothing, as their reflexes have developed to avoid handling. At youth levels, there is a lost more judgment.
Click to expand...
True, but a similar reflex action that puts their arms even slightly above their head would be penalised as it would have made them unnaturally bigger.

Causes problems when we have sentences in law that almost overlap with each other and create contradictions.
 
Well above is easy, but is slightly above? Is that making the player unnaturally bigger for what he is doing—legally reflexively protecting his face? I think again the answer on that is very age/level dependent.
 
I once called handball when defender ducked with their arm raised and the ball hit their hand. Was it a pen ? Probably . U12s was it expected? Probably not. I learned a good lesson that game. Nobody is going to be bothered that you dont call handball but everyone remembers that you called handball when the player was apparently protecting themselves.
 
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