AboutJohn Cummings Expertise Do you have a call made by the referee in last week`s match puzzling you? Are you a referee who may not be certain that what was done was the right thing to do? I shall be glad to entertain any questions about officiating soccer. The more the players, coaches and supporters understand the referee and his/her decisions, the more fun we can have on the pitch.
Experience After coaching my son's travel team, I have been USSF State Referee, State Assessor, Assignor and State Instructor in addition to having been a college NISOA referee,a NISOA clinician, a NISOA assessor and a high school referee.
Question My daughter plays on a select team and in the last couple of games there has been balls kick and hit the defenders hand/arm. We parents thought it was a handball but the REF made no call. Later in the game a ball bounced up and hit a players hand and it was called a handball. This inconstancy is making it hard for me to know what a handball is. Can you please clarify it for me?
Answer If the foul just did not have the name "handball," it would be easier to comprehend. So many people misunderstand this law, and it is not your fault - it is the fault of the name "handball" and the inconsistent enforcement by some referees.
I prefer the name from the law itself - "Deliberate Handling." This is preferable in that if the contact is not deliberate, it is NOT a foul. Some like the rule of thumb that it the hand moved to the ball, it is a foul, but if the ball moved to hit the hand, it is not a foul.
Even if the ball falls so that it would appear that the player whose arm was struck has gained some sort of advantage, if the contact was not deliberate, it was NOT a foul.
That being said, let's consider a common situation - reflex. Let's say that Mary has a ball kicked right at her face from about 10 feet away at a high rate of speed. If this happened to you or me, we would put out hand/arm up to protect out face WITHOUT thinking. This is a reflex and not a deliberate handling; ergo, it is NOT a foul. When the ref sees such contact, he/she should consider the age of the players, the distance from the ball to the player, the level of the players and the force of the ball.
Another common situation is the young lady who is standing near midfield waiting for a goal kick. As the ball sails through the air, the young lady puts her arms across her chest to "protect" herself. When the ball hits her arms that she moved to this position, she has committed the foul of Deliberate Handling. She had time to play the ball with her head, her thigh, her foot, or she could have just gotten out of the way. She had time to think and decided to put her arms across her chest to play the ball. Young men are not allowed to protect their groin area in a similar situation. But if it were in a situation similar to the one in the above paragraph, it would not be a foul.
I hope this helps, and I hope you can pass this along to the other parents. The more the parents, coaches and players know of the law of the game, the easier it is for us referees. Hope you and you daughter have fun on and around the pitch.
