I'm a grassroots referee. All this handball back and forth is driving me crazy, so I decided to get to the bottom of it.
After the Neves handball, many folks (including the BBC) linked this IFAB page, specifically calling out these clauses:
A handball offence is not committed when a player:
- heads, kicks or plays the ball with another part of their body and it then hits their own hand/arm (unless the ball goes directly into the opponents’ goal or the player scores immediately afterwards)
- falls and the ball hits their supporting arm, which is between their body and the ground (unless the ball goes directly into the opponents’ goal or the player scores immediately afterwards, in which case a direct free kick is awarded to the other team)
- is hit on the hand/arm by the ball which has been played by a team-mate (unless the ball goes directly into the opponents’ goal or the player scores immediately afterwards, in which case a direct free kick is awarded to the other team)
Open and shut, right?
Nope. That site isn't the rulebook. This is the rulebook. Here's the relevant section on handballs:
For the purposes of determining handball offences, the upper boundary of the arm is in line with the bottom of the armpit. Not every touch of a player’s hand/arm with the ball is an offence.
It is an 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
Note that there is absolutely nothing describing what isn't a handball or mentioning the ball being kicked by a teammate. The only decisions that are relevant when deciding whether or not a handball occurred is whether the player is making the body bigger or the body movement justified the position of the arm/hand.
So, yeah, nobody knows what a handball is, including the BBC, and it's because they're looking at a website that has the IFAB logo but extrapolates ideas based off of those rules that aren't actually there.
Queue Cue chaos in the comments.