‘Nobody in the world understands’

UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin on Tuesday criticised present handball guidelines, telling Roger Bennett’s “Men in Blazers” podcast that “nobody in the world understands when there’s handball or not.”

Ceferin’s feedback have been echoed by the UEFA Football Board, which on Tuesday urged extra readability on the handball regulation and advisable modifications for subsequent season after holding its inaugural assembly in Nyon at the headquarters of European soccer’s governing physique.

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“We had the best coaches in the world in the room,” Ceferin stated. “We showed them a situation where a ball hits the hand of a player and we said penalty or no penalty, half said penalty, half said no penalty.

“Those are coaches of the greatest groups in the world. I believe that the referee on the pitch ought to resolve as a result of in any other case we do not want a referee anymore. We can simply have a machine that claims handball or no handball, and I do not prefer it. I do not prefer it. We must, and we’ll begin engaged on that to inform the referees that they must resolve if it is a pure transfer or not, and so forth.”

The board, which includes managers such as Carlo Ancelotti and Jose Mourinho, plus former players like Paolo Maldini and Luis Figo, was approved by the UEFA executive committee to give independent opinions on football-related topics.

This week it issued recommendations after discussing the handball law, specifically the aspect that states that not every touch of the arm or hand with the ball is an offence.

“The Board recommends that UEFA ought to make clear that no handball offence must be known as on a participant if the ball is beforehand deflected from his personal physique and, in explicit, when the ball doesn’t go in the direction of the purpose,” it said.

“On the similar discover, the Board recommends that not each handball ought to mechanically result in a warning after each shot at purpose, as anticipated by present tips.”

The Board also said UEFA should contact football’s law-making body, the International Football Association Board (IFAB), to amend the law on sending off players for handball decisions.

It suggested that a player should be sent off for denying a goal-scoring opportunity only if they “intentionally and deliberately” touch the ball with their hand or arm.

“In case of different handball offences, the gamers ought to solely be cautioned,” it added.

Ceferin also repeated his dislike for the current offside rule.

“Two centimeters of offside isn’t offside for me,” he said. “We must see if the line must be thicker.”

Information from Reuters was used in this report.