Referee Review
Why was this decision made?
See the key points from a referee’s perspective
Show explanation
Referee Review
Why was this decision made?
See the key points from a referee’s perspective
Show explanationHow the footage and Laws apply
This is an incident on which opinions divide, and the question is whether the player can be said to have made their body unnaturally bigger. Watching the footage again, it can be seen that after the Kashima player took the shot, the ball made faint contact with the right hand of a Yokohama F. Marinos defending player. It is worth restating here that a handball offence is judged on whether or not the ball made contact, even when, as here, that contact is only slight. How firmly the ball struck the arm does not form part of the reasoning or the grounds for the decision. In the same way, whether the shot was heading towards the goal has no bearing on whether there is a handball offence. Start from this point: the decision rests on whether or not contact was made, and on whether the position of the arm constitutes an offence. On that basis, whether this defending player's right hand made their body unnaturally bigger is the part left to the referee's judgement. Here the right hand was in front of the body and above knee height, and having the arm in this position is regarded as having made the body unnaturally bigger. The referee therefore judged that there was a handball offence. What do you think?
Relevant Laws
Law 12 - Fouls and Misconduct (Handling the ball)
Official references
Check the wording of the Laws
The links above lead to official IFAB and JFA resources. The application of the Laws to this incident is the author’s analysis and is not an official view of IFAB, JFA or the competition organiser.
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