The League puts end point to an eleven month season which has been marked by various factors and which has turned it into one of the most atypical in all history. Being a football very different from what was customary. The main reason has been the coronavirus, a pandemic that has not only rocked soccer, but to the whole world. But there have also been other aspects at the football level that have led to many controversies, such as some of the new regulations. Something that has led many coaches and players to raise their voices in a negative way to the path that this sport is following. An example of this is Paco Jémez, the most critical: “Soccer has become a slop and a shame.” Rules as controversial as the 'heel law' and the increase in expulsions, the record of penalties, the overtaking of the goalkeepers, the hands …
Football without fans
One of the great reasons for the success of professional football and its repercussion in the world are the fans. The soul of this sport that has left stadiums and footballers orphaned during the last third of the season. Perhaps this gap in the stands for eleven days together with the three-month hiatus have been the two most unexpected events during the course of the season. Something unusual and that nobody expected neither at the beginning of the course nor the year. For the sake of the soccer industry, the championship managed to restart, with strict sanitary security measures and has come to an end. In this way, the clubs have managed to secure almost all of the income from television rights, the great source of income for most First and Second Division teams.
The law of the heel and the increase in expulsions
The first great controversy of the season arose as a result of the so-called 'heel law'. The Arbitration Committee made special emphasis that its members did not miss a serious foul play action and punished it with a direct red. During the first days, there were quite a few cases in which players were sent off for tickets to the heel, but after a refereeing seminar, the rhythm dropped for expulsions for this reason, it was clarified that in case of a friction, drag play (if the impact were like a claw that slides down the leg) or if there is a middle boot it should only show yellow. Fran Escribá, Celta coach at the beginning of the campaign, was blunt in the face of so many expulsions: “I think that within three days or after Christmas it will change. With this rule we take on football. This is not football. I wouldn't pay to go see an 11v9 game. “
Direct reds have increased considerably this season compared to the previous ones. 43 have been shown this course (31, on 18/19; 27, on 17/18; 34, on 16/17, and 35, on 15/16). But it is remarkable how the expulsions have increased in the last days of the season, much more than in the first when the whole controversy of the 'heel law' arose. In the first four days 8 direct reds were shown, in the last four of the championship 16 have been shown. The double. From the Arbitration Committee they attribute this increase not to a variation of the norm and have asked for greater punishment (although it is one of the aspects that always ask their arbitrators to monitor and apply the norm if there are entrances that put the physical integrity of the player who receives it), but to the importance of the last matches by having several of the objectives (title, Europe and relegation) at stake, can lead to greater intensity in the matches.
Penalties
This League has undoubtedly been that of penalties. The record for the 1989/1990 season was broken, in which 140 were set. In this edition of LaLiga, 149 have been whistled. A notable increase also compared to previous campaigns (on 18/19 there were 130 and 113 on 17/18). The increase has been notable and is that maximum penalties are being called with the minimum contact and for which the VAR does not enter because it does not consider that it is a clear and manifest error.
Regarding penalties, there has also been a protest by the goalkeepers. Since a new rule has also been released that affects goalkeepers during their launch. IFAB It has given goalkeepers more freedom of movement, from having both feet on the goal line to having only one. But like everything, this measure has one of lime and another of sand. The problem has been that since this season every time a goalkeeper has stopped a penalty and was early they have had to repeat the shot and have seen a yellow card. A punishment that they consider excessive and that leads them not to risk stopping a penalty because if they already have one they could see the second and leave their team with one less player.
Hands
This season the new regulation regarding hands has entered into force. Criteria that must be taken into account the naturalness of the arm, if the hand occupies a space or not, if it is voluntary, if it is above the shoulder, if it favors a goal … Various criteria have also triggered the maximum penalties per hand. Moreover, it is already speculated that some soccer players, instead of focusing, seek the defender's hand because the fault will almost always be indicated, either because the referee or the VAR sees it. It should be borne in mind that for the coming season the clarification is added that any ball that impacts the part of the arm that is higher than the armpit will be considered shoulder and not hand.
The set of all these criteria that have entered at the same time and the soulless aspect of the stands of the stadiums has caused this season to have experienced a football very different from what was customary.