UEFA reassessment of Spain's handball doesn't help Germany

What actually happened?

Euro 2024 hosts Germany and Spain are tied 1-1 in extra time of their quarterfinal in Stuttgart. The match is in the 106th minute when German attacker Jamala Musiala takes a shot that gets blocked by Spanish defender Marc Cucurella's hand.

English referee Anthony Taylor lets play continue and video assistant referee Stuart Attwell fails to intervene. In the 119th minute, Mikel Merino scores with a header to make it 2-1 for Spain. Germany are knocked out of the competition and Spain go on to win the European Championship.

What was the reaction at the time?

"I don't want to complain, but I want to use this platform to campaign for the rule to be changed in the interests of football," Germany coach Julian Nagelsmann told public broadcaster ZDF after the final whistle.

"It would be nice if we could assess where the ball was headed. If Jamal Musiala had kicked the ball towards downtown Stuttgart and Cucurella touched it, I would never call for a penalty. But the ball was headed towards the goal and he clearly stopped it with his hand."

Among refereeing experts, opinion was divided. Some called it a bad decision, others said there was room for interpretation. At a media briefing prior to the tournament, Roberto Rosetti, UEFA's head referee, had shown video footage of a similar incident from a Champions League match between RB Leipzig and Manchester City.

"This is never a penalty. [The] arm is close to the body, the player is trying to avoid the contact [with the ball]," he said.

What does the rule book say?

In its Laws of the Game the International Football Association Board (IFAB) states:

"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

Why does UEFA now see the incident differently?

"In this case, the defender stopped the shot on goal with his arm, which is not very close to the body, making himself bigger, so a penalty should have been given," reads a UEFA report, which has been made available to several media outlets.

The report is meant for the use of UEFA referees and is intended to help ensure that they make uniform decisions in controversial situations.

"According to the latest UEFA guidelines, handball contact that prevents a shot on goal should be penalised more severely and in most cases a penalty kick should be awarded, unless the defender's arm is very close to the body or touching the body," the report explains.

What does it all mean for Germany?

Nothing changes for Germany following the report. Later on the day of the game, a German fan started a petition on the change.org website to have the match replayed due to the refereeing decision. More than 450,000 signatures were collected. Similar petitions in the past have failed to make any impact, as the "factual decision" on the pitch is considered supreme.

"The decisions of the referee regarding facts connected with play, including whether or not a goal is scored and the result of the match, are final," states Law 5.2 of IFAB's Laws of the Game. "The decisions of the referee, and all other match officials, must always be respected."

An extremely rare exception occurs when a refereeing team is found to have committed a serious breach of the rules.

The German Football Association's (DFB) sports court recently ruled that a women's Bundesliga match between Freiburg and Bayer Leverkusen, which Leverkusen won 3-2, be replayed.

The referee had allowed the penalty kick, which was converted for Leverkusen's winning goal shortly before the final whistle, to be retaken in breach of the rules. 

Can we expect any major change to the handball rule?

In 1863, the first official football rules drawn up by the English Football Association prohibited a handball, declaring that "no player shall take the ball from the ground with his hands while it is in play under any pretence whatever."

However, until 1871, when fixed goalkeepers were introduced to the game, the so-called "fair catch" was still permitted.

In 1886, IFAB was created and became responsible for any and all rule changes. In 1891, IFAB decided that a deliberate handball in the penalty area was punishable by a penalty kick. When it was founded in 1904, FIFA recognized IFAB's jurisdiction over the rules of the game.

However, the IFAB rules are not set in stone. At regular intervals, the eight top rule makers – four FIFA representatives and one delegate each from the FAs of England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales – meet to discuss possible reforms.

In 2019, IFAB introduced the criterion of "unnatural" arm movement. Contact with the ball with the hand or arm above shoulder height is generally deemed to be a handball. Therefore, Diego Maradona's "hand of God" goal for Argentina in the 1986 World Cup quarterfinal against England was illegal.

For the 2024-25 season, IFAB modified how a handball is to be sanctioned. If a player prevents a goal in his own penalty area with an unintentional handball rather than an intentional one, he or she will no longer receive a red card, but only a yellow card.

According to the German Football League (DFL), which operates the Bundesliga, the proportion of handball penalties awarded in Germany's top league has increased since the introduction of video assistants. In 2023-24, 22 out of 101 penalties were given due to handball.

This article was originally published in German.