The handball rule in the Bundesliga is sometimes not quite as clear and understandable, even among the pros. When is it hand in football? SPOX conducts educational work.
A new season is underway in the Bundesliga. Means: Emotions are to be expected again – positive as well as negative.
With goals, with goals against, with wins, with defeats, with title successes, with relegations. But also with possible wrong decisions on the part of the referees, which can sometimes be less and sometimes more painful for the clubs and their fans.
Year after year, the question of what counts as handball and what doesn’t is a topic of conversation. Even the introduction of the video assistant has not been able to eliminate this problem, on the contrary, tempers in the stadiums are often even heated up because the main referee watches a handball scene again despite the VAR, but allows the game to continue or even at all not walk to the monitor first. Perplexed, the protagonists then express themselves – professionals, trainers, managers.
Bundesliga, hand game rule: when is it hand in football?
To put it bluntly, it is often said in football: It was only a handball when the referee whistled. Basically, the regulations are clearly defined, although they are changed from time to time. Because handballs, with their natural or unnatural movements, have always been evaluated differently by referees, the rule-keepers of the International Football Association Board (IFAB) have made a change to the handball rule for the 2021/22 season. This also applies to the Bundesliga.
Since then, the main criterion has again been the intention of a handball. Means: Clearly unintentional hand games will no longer be punished – as was the case until 2019.
When is there a handball? The case is that when…
…the ball is deliberately touched with the hand or arm.
…the ball hits the arm and the player enlarges his body in an unnatural way.
…when a player scores a goal with an arm – whether intentional or unintentional and whether with an unnaturally enlarged body surface or not.
But up to what point on the body is touching the ball considered handball and when is it no longer? Touching from the height of the armpit downwards is punishable.
Bundesliga 2022/23: duels at the start of the 1st matchday
