On penalties and handballs - a better solution

For those like me old enough to remember, the rule used to be that handball needed to be intentional to be an offence. Hand to ball and all - ie, you made a deliberate motion to handle the ball.

So if the ball was blasted at you from only a yard or two awa

It required a bit of judgement and interpretation from the officials. They no doubt got it wrong sometimes. But it wasn't mad, and if applied sensible generally didn't send normal football fans into regular rages, or give penalties when clearly nothing of the sort should be given.

But there was one problem that meant it had to be changed. That was that if you were an defender in front of your own goal, you could just

Posted By: Tricky Hawes on May 11th 2026 at 15:06:28

Message Thread

On penalties and handballs - a better solution (Other Football) - Tricky Hawes, May 11, 15:06:28
- doh - continued (Other Football) - Tricky Hawes, May 11, 15:11:25
  - I think the current rule is fine, but applied badly (Other Football) - jamesward, May 11, 16:16:41
    - disagree with this quite a bit (Other Football) - Tricky Hawes, May 11, 16:59:41
      - Because refs aren’t mind readers (Other Football) - Old Git, May 11, 18:03:26
        
        Always used to be the rule (Other Football) - Tricky Hawes, May 11, 18:26:32
        
        I think if your arm is above your head it’s handball (Other Football) - jamesward, May 11, 18:40:19
  - A lawyer writes: (Other Football) - Old Git, May 11, 15:51:16
    - We'll have to agree to disagree (Other Football) - Tricky Hawes, May 11, 15:55:58
      - Well I guess if you added on “deliberate” as well as “unnatural it might help (Other Football) - Old Git, May 11, 15:59:45
  - The default starting position should always be that it isn't handball (Other Football) - mr carra, May 11, 15:26:57
    - Yep, agreed (Other Football) - Tricky Hawes, May 11, 15:41:04
      - You never used to see defenders put their arms behind their backs. (n/m) (Other Football) - MORDENCANARY, May 11, 15:59:46
        
        I think it’s a good thing that they do that (Other Football) - Old Git, May 11, 16:02:57

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