RateTheRef

That's a clear penalty for UEFA - enlarging the body surface (tense arm) to block a shot.

If that's a penalty, they may as well do away with reams of interpretations and mealy mouthed definitions and just say "if the ball touches the hand or arm it's a penalty".

An hideous decision, fortunately of no great consequence.

I admire your fortitude in defending such an appalling decision and the introduction of a new criteria "tense arm" to add to the rest of the nonsense. Perhaps you can advise how arm tension is measured, in what units and what the acceptable limits are ?

I find the comments on here frustrating at times.

- I wasn't *actually* defending the decision, I am quite sure that PGMOL will assess this as a mistake and in Nield's position I would have never given this penalty (in England)

- I was only trying to give an insight from a different perspective which, I assumed, would be appreciated by RtR users (this would be a very clear penalty in most of Europe)

- It is a bit sad IMO that your reflexive answer is to try and portray me as an idiot who defends the ref's decision in any circumstance; a) I would like to think my contributions to RtR would show that I have some idea of what I'm talking about, and, b) I analyse performances / situations objectively and fairly

- You don't even try to understand the nuance in assessing handlings at the moment! Of course, that's your choice and there are many more important things in life(!), but your tone, moaning about it as if in a fan's forum, doesn't paint you in the best light, at least in my opinion

Quote from: nemesis on Mon 22 Nov 2021 20:54

If that's a penalty, they may as well do away with reams of interpretations and mealy mouthed definitions and just say "if the ball touches the hand or arm it's a penalty".

An hideous decision, fortunately of no great consequence.

I admire your fortitude in defending such an appalling decision and the introduction of a new criteria "tense arm" to add to the rest of the nonsense. Perhaps you can advise how arm tension is measured, in what units and what the acceptable limits are ?

I find the comments on here frustrating at times.

- I wasn't *actually* defending the decision, I am quite sure that PGMOL will assess this as a mistake and in Nield's position I would have never given this penalty (in England)

- I was only trying to give an insight from a different perspective which, I assumed, would be appreciated by RtR users (this would be a very clear penalty in most of Europe)

- It is a bit sad IMO that your reflexive answer is to try and portray me as an idiot who defends the ref's decision in any circumstance; a) I would like to think my contributions to RtR would show that I have some idea of what I'm talking about, and, b) I analyse performances / situations objectively and fairly

- You don't even try to understand the nuance in assessing handlings at the moment! Of course, that's your choice and there are many more important things in life(!), but your tone, moaning about it as if in a fan's forum, doesn't paint you in the best light, at least in my opinion

It certainly came across as defending the decision. Given that you now say that it was an error and you wouldn't have given it, it might have been helpful to have qualified your initial comment with such.

You are most assuredly not an idiot and I wouldn't want anyone to think I suggested you were. When I respond to a post I do just that, not the poster, and it may well be that your other posts represent more balance.

Now you have stated, somewhat disparagingly, that I don't even try to understand the nuance of handling. Believe me I do and it's not always easy matching up what I've managed to understand with what I see on the pitch and in the VAR studio.

Fans have every right to moan about decisions like the one in question which, in my opinion, was never a penalty considering both the spirit and letter of the Laws.

As a footnote, I thought we were part of UEFA.

I think it is incredibly harsh, but his arm is out from his body and that has undoubtedly made his body bigger, and under the current law is supportable.  I also think in Europe this would always be given and not even a discussion point.  It is this text that was added this season that makes it a penalty ...

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

Difficult to argue that his arm is in that position as a consequence of trying to block the shot, so as the text says he has taken a risk and been penalised.