The league sent out this message today regarding how "hand balls" will be dealt with in our league. I too think it is something that is called too often.
Posted by: "Carmella Alvaro"
Captains, This is an email recently sent to our ref corps. Please forward it to your players for some leisure reading. Knowledge of the game makes it a more enjoyable day out on the field for everyone involved. Subject: Clarification of Handling Hello Refs, In an effort to continuously train and develop our ref corps, I will send out occasional clarification on the Laws of the Game. For the first installment, I have chosen my personal #1 pet peeve in all of the misunderstanding of the rules of our great sport: “Handball”, or really, the lack thereof… THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A HANDBALL FOUL in soccer, futbol, calcio or whatever you call it. Law 12 says a foul occurs when a player “deliberately handles the ball." To show the players you are truly not blind and saw the ball contact the hand but not result in a handling foul, it is ok to yell out “No Foul!” etc to get ahead of dissent. To see the full article, click below: http://www.vadcsoccerref.com/whistletalk/57893.htmlHere is an excerpt:“Let me give some examples of "handballs" that are not fouls:Players are standing in a wall with their hands placed across their chest or in front of the groin area to protect themselves. The ball is kicked into their arms or hands. While the ball has made contact with the hands or arms, this is not deliberate handling of the ball and is not a foul.
A hard shot, taken 3-5 yards away from a player, streaks toward the player’s head. In a flinch reaction, the player throws his hands up to protect his face and, in the process, strikes the ball. This is not deliberate handling of the ball. It is an involuntary reaction that is guaranteed to happen no matter how good the player is. This is not a foul. \u003cbr\>\n A player dribbles the ball on one of our "smooth as satin" fields when the ball hits a rock or clump of grass and bounces up. The ball strikes the player in the hand. This is not deliberate handling of the ball. \u003cbr\>\n And it doesn’t even matter if an advantage is gained. Consider the following:\u003cbr\>\n \u003cbr\>\n A striker shoots on goal. The keeper catches it. The striker turns and begins running up field vigorously pumping her arms. The keeper gets off a low line drive punt that arrives at the striker just as she swings her arm backwards. Her elbow strikes the ball driving it backwards into the goal. Did the player gain an advantage? Certainly, she scored a goal. Did she deliberately handle the ball? Not hardly. She was running with her back to the ball and didn’t even see it. Unless the referee sees the team practicing this play before the game, it is not a foul!!! Proper restart is a kick-off after the goal.”\u003cbr\>\n Please feel free to suggest topics or ask for clarifications or tips at any time across the season.
A hard shot, taken 3-5 yards away from a player, streaks toward the player’s head. In a flinch reaction, the player throws his hands up to protect his face and, in the process, strikes the ball. This is not deliberate handling of the ball. It is an involuntary reaction that is guaranteed to happen no matter how good the player is. This is not a foul. A player dribbles the ball on one of our "smooth as satin" fields when the ball hits a rock or clump of grass and bounces up. The ball strikes the player in the hand. This is not deliberate handling of the ball. And it doesn’t even matter if an advantage is gained. Consider the following:A striker shoots on goal. The keeper catches it. The striker turns and begins running up field vigorously pumping her arms. The keeper gets off a low line drive punt that arrives at the striker just as she swings her arm backwards. Her elbow strikes the ball driving it backwards into the goal. Did the player gain an advantage? Certainly, she scored a goal. Did she deliberately handle the ball? Not hardly. She was running with her back to the ball and didn’t even see it. Unless the referee sees the team practicing this play before the game, it is not a foul!!! Proper restart is a kick-off after the goal.”Please feel free to suggest topics or ask for clarifications or tips at any time across the season.
Thanks, Carmella AlvaroUSSF Assignor
As a ref, you come to expect that every time a ball touches a hand, calls of "handball" will follow. I agree that it's a tough call, and I wouldn't say it's necessarily called too much or too little. I just prefer that a referee is consistent during a given match. Either he/she's calling all the ticky-tack ones, or he/she's consistent in only calling intentional hand ball fouls.
ReplyDeleteConsidering that referees in general need more help in game management than foul recognition, I'm not sure why the league is emphasizing this so much.
I think this email from Carm is just the beginning of a multi-part serious of instructional emails to further referee edumacation. She also sent this email to team captains who should, like our fearless leader, post them in some way for their players to take note. For me it is the players that need the info. A lot of dissent towards the refs comes from players that think they know the rules, but their information is either outright wrong or outdated (playing from the ground is a big one - no one in this country seems to know that is legal). The last game I reffed the players got so pissed at me when I called back a goal for offsides. Two attackers had broke away from the second to last defender so they only had the goalie to beat. One player passed the ball to the other for the easy tap in - unfortunately the goal scorer was not behind the ball when the pass was made so he was offsides. They never believed me when I explained....I ended up giving one of them a yellow card.
ReplyDeleteunderstanding the rules is important. we're not going to dissent this season.
ReplyDelete