Handball, VAR & concussion substitutes

At today’s 135th AGM of the International Football Association Board (The IFAB) there was clarification of the handball law, VAR discussions and the confirmation of concussion substitute trials. 

To clarify, it is a handball offence if a player:

• deliberately touches the ball with their hand/arm, for example moving the hand/arm towards the ball
• touches the ball with their hand/arm when it has made their body unnaturally bigger. 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.
• scores in the opponents’ goal:

- directly from their hand/arm, even if accidental, including by the goalkeeper

- immediately after the ball has touched their hand/arm, even if accidental.

Accidental handball by a teammate of the scorer or which creates a goalscoring opportunity, except by the goalscorer, will no longer be considered as offences.

These handball clarifications were the most significant changes from today’s meeting. We took a step back because we felt there was a need for action and while there have not been many incidents, it is clear that football is played with the feet and, even when it happens unintentionally, playing the ball with the hand is not allowed.

We have made handball clearer overall. It’s not a penalty kick every time the ball touches the hand. We hope this clarification will help everyone – it shows that we are watching, listening and paying attention. This is exactly what the IFAB has been doing for 135 years – we are listening to comments and contributing to making the game better for years to come.

Today, we also talked about the semi-automatic offside line and whether there will be a “VAR light” system so it can be used in more competitions globally. We successfully tested this at the FIFA Club World Cup and the results were very positive. We cannot rule out the possibility of using this technology at the 2022 FIFA World Cup but we still have a lot of work ahead of us.

Video assistant referees (or “VAR”) brings more justice and transparency to the game, it makes it cleaner, fairer and supports the referees in making the right decisions. Every player wants to succeed because of correct decisions and not because of mistakes. Of course, there are occasional mistakes and at the moment there are situations where it takes a short time for the decision to be made but a few seconds shouldn't be a bad thing. Since VAR was introduced in 2018, we have gone from 95% to 99% correct decisions so we can be positive, but we need to continue to improve nonetheless.

Finally, there was an update on the early stages of the trials with additional concussion substitutes. The trials have already been introduced in international and domestic competitions around the world, with more competitions about to join or having shown interest in participating in these trials, currently foreseen to continue until August 2022.

In the meantime, The IFAB and FIFA will continue collecting, analysing and discussing the football and medical-related feedback and data which will inform any decisions about potential implementation in the Laws of the Game. 

We are always open to new and better ways of running the game for everyone.

Gianni