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« Last post by rustyref on Mon 26 Jan 2026 17:09 »
It does feel like the laws have been misinterpreted, hopefully not by the match officials but certainly those supposed experts commenting about it. There are two decisions to make here, the first is was it intentional handling or was the arm not in an acceptable position for the body movement for that specific action. At this point whether the ball would have gone into the goal is neither here nor there, it is completely irrelevant.
It only then becomes relevant if they decide to award a penalty. The wording of the law is confusing because when deciding the sanction it talks about a deliberate or non-deliberate handball offence. But what it means is if they intentionally handle the ball it is deliberate and would be a red card. If their arm was not deemed to be in a supportable position that would be classed as non-deliberate and would be a caution. Think of it like cases such as Suarez or Steven Taylor saving on the line as a red card, whereas a player having their arm out from their body in what is deemed to deemed to be not justifiable for the footballing action being performed would be a yellow, they haven't made a conscious attempt to handle it but had their arm where it shouldn't have been.
But to be absolutely clear, there has to be a handling offence, just because the ball was going on target is not a consideration in deciding whether there has been an offence, it only affects any potential sanction. The supposed football experts need to read the law again, I really hope the referee and VAR have fallen into this trap otherwise they will be in serious hot water.
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