When I wrote the two parts of “The Mountain and the Mouse,” I expected the new LOTG (2020-21) to come through soon. It just came out as a
In these pandemic days, there are no games to comment on, no developments in the transferwindow to gossip about, no bad call to criticize and hence not too many topics for us to write about. So I will talk about the Mouse that the Mountain (IFAB) gave birth to, namely the new officialLOTG 2020-21.
One of the most debated concepts in the recent years was the radical change in the interpretation of handling the ball: From “intentional handling” to“deliberate handling” to now the handball offense. It is obvious that the guardians of the LOTG wants the contact between the ball and the hand to be penalized unless a very few conditionsare met. In the past the contact between the hand and the ball was only penalized if the contact was “deliberate” which meant that the referee had to do some mind reading of the player. Ifyou look carefully at the LOTG or my earlier articles on handling concepts like “the distance between the opponent and the ball (unexpected ball)” or “the position of the hand doesnot necessarily mean that there is an infringement” have either disappeared in the current versions of the LOTG or have been watered down. Instead of answering questions like what is meant by“unnaturally bigger” or “what is naturally bigger” IFAB chose to address two other points regarding handling in the new LOTG (2020-21). To be fair to IFAB, they removed theword “usually” from the interpretation of the handball offensewhich created nothing but further ambiguity.
Here are two changes to the LOTG regarding the handball offense:
“Handball:
- Accidental handball by an attacking player should only be penalised if it ‘immediately’ results in a goal or an obvious opportunity for the player and/or theirteam to score a goal (i.e. following the handball, the ball travels only a short distance and/or there are very few passes)
- For the purposes ofdetermining handball offences, the ‘arm’ stops at the bottom of the armpit”
The first one clarifies the case of an “accidental” handballoffense occurring NOT just before a goal is scored. The whole reason why the new interpretation of the handball offense for a goal to be scored or assisted by an “accidental” handballoffense was that the football does not expect for a goal to be scored or assisted by a hand in any way or fashion. This new change tell us that – using the terminology of the VAR protocol– if there is an “accidental” handball in the buildup of a goal then the goal should be allowed unless the “accidental” handball occurred just immediately prior to the agoal scored. I believe this interpretation was inserted thinking about the VAR protocol and not necessarily the grassroots game.
The second definition is rather vague. Theillustration that IFAB provides at least in my opinion is not an illustration of where the “arm’ stops at the bottom of the armpit.”. It shows a very short sleeve of a short sleeved shirtmore like what the Australian Rules Football players wear. It yet creates another problem: What happens when there is contact between the ball and both the pink and green areas. Sometimes in order tomake something clearer -instead of leaving it to the judgment of the referee- you open up a can of worms. I do not think this definition was a problematic part of the current interpretation of thehandball offence, so why does IFAB poke the bee hive with questions like above is a question I cannot answer.
The LOTG (2020-21) make changes to Law 1, 2, 4, 10, 11,12, 14 and the VAR protocol. Football expected changes in interpretation of the handball offense, the concussion protocol and the offside rule as manifested by the problems created using the VARprotocol. The Mountain delivered the above handball offencs interpretation changes and left the rest to the coming year(s). At least IFAB says in its circular to the National Associations: “Themembers agreed that the fundamental philosophy of offside is underpinned by a desire to encourage attacking football and the scoring of goals. It was further agreed, therefore, that Law 11 –Offside should be analysed and reviewed with a view to potentially proposing changes reflecting this philosophy.” We will wait and see.
Regarding the other changes in the LOTG(2020-21) there are three changes that I find interesting to relay to the readers:
- “If a goalkeeper is penalised and a kick is retaken, the goalkeeper is warnedfor the first offence (in the game or in KFPM) and cautioned (YC) for any subsequent offence(s).” In conjunction with this change, IFAB decided that cautions will not be carried into the KFPM.This change was also triggered by the use of VAR technology. In games using VAR and its related technology, illegal goalkeeper moves during a penalty kick are asked to be detected like an objectivedecision and not as a clear and obvious error observed by the human eye. This increased the number of retakes and the caution that automatically comes with it created problems like sending goalkeepersoff during PKs and/or KFPM.
- ”If the referee allows a ‘quick’ free kick or plays advantage for an offence which ‘interfered with or stopped a promisingattack’, the YC is not issued” This seemed redundant if you were going to apply advantage for a promising attack, you should not later on turn around caution the player for ‘stoppinga potential attack’ since the promising attack did take place.
- ”If the goalkeeper is penalised for ‘illegally’ playing the ball a second time at arestart (i.e. before it has touched another player), the appropriate disciplinary sanction is applied, even if the second touch was with the hand/arm.”
Thehypothetical question was always asked without a good reply: ‘What happens if a goalkeeper takes a free kick and the wind blows the ball directly back towards the goal and the goalkeeperprevents the ball going into the net by playing with his hands?’ Especially with the recent Law change (2019-20) that makes the ball in play the moment it is played without having to leave thepenalty area, this question became more feasible. The new Law says that the goalkeeper should be sent off for DOGSO and the game restarted with an indirect free kick.
These werethe major changes for the 2020-21 season.
Here is another Turkish saying: “Too many words cannot be without a lie and too much money without a sin.” What it issaying if you say too much then it is possible that you will say something which is not true. Some years we have massive and radical changes in the LOTG. The 2016-17 edition of the LOTG was one ofthose years, the 2017-18 edition had fewer Law changes mostly to clarify or correct what was said a year before. The 2019-20 edition had a lot of changes to the LOTG, so this year we have less changesand some to clarify and correct the Law changes of the year before.
Ahmet Guvener (ahmet@ahmetguvener.com) is the former SecretaryGeneral and the Chief Soccer Officer of Turkish FA. He was also the Head of Refereeing for the Turkish FA. He served as Panel member for the FIFA Panel of Referee Instructors and UEFA RefereeConvention. He now lives and works as a soccer consultant in Georgetown, TX.