MADRID, 15 Abr. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Technical Committee of Referees (CTA) defended itself this Monday against the criticism received for the penalty awarded to Yuri Berchiche, an Athletic Club player, for a handball against Villarreal and assured that it was well marked despite the fact that it came from a rebound and that these I had already explained situations in training sessions to the clubs.
The Copa del Rey champion was unable to take three key points in San Mamés after Cuadra Fernández, after consulting the monitor, declared as a penalty the handball of the local side who was hit by a shot from Alex Baena, after hitting his body. had hit his arm. This signage provoked criticism from Ernesto Valverde and Ander Herrera on the part of the local side.
In a statement following the “statements of the players and coaches” after Athletic Club and Villarreal of LaLiga EA Sports, the committee wanted to make several “points to explain how it carries out the formation of the squads of the clubs that request it.” and which it offers “at the beginning of each preseason” to men’s and women’s professional soccer teams.
In this way, they have “the possibility for a referee from the professional staff to carry out training on the modifications to the Laws of the Game that come into force and the guidelines that have been agreed upon in the previous refereeing concentration.” to the competition.”
The CTA indicated that between August and September of last year it carried out several of these training sessions with more than a dozen teams, including Athletic Club, whose men’s team received it on “August 9”, and that “throughout this 2024” several clubs have contacted him to receive it “since it is mandatory to obtain the UEFA license.”
The body chaired by Luis Medina Cantalejo also noted that on August 9 “it held an online training meeting with the coaches” of LaLiga EA Sports and LaLiga Hypermotion, “where various issues were discussed, including which hand actions were punishable and which No”.
In this sense, he stressed that he exposed a play from Atlético-Cádiz from last season in which a Cádiz defender launched himself to “intercept a ball with his right arm raised” and that “the ball hits his body and then in the arm”, something similar to what would have happened to Yuri Berchiche against Villarreal.
“The CTA explained that this play was punishable because the defender’s arm occupied a space in an unnatural manner, becoming larger, before the ball hit him in the body, so this rebound was inconsequential for the action and did not exempt him of the foul. The defender assumed a risk by launching himself in that way and, regardless of whether the ball first hit another part of his body or not, when contact occurred with his raised arm, the action was punishable with a penalty kick without a caution. , stressed the CTA.
He also pointed out that “in actions where a defender goes to the ground with one arm supported or towards the support, if the ball hits that arm the action is not punishable, unless the arm is extended away from the body, seeking to make the body more large”, and that this guideline “has been in force since the modification of the Laws of the Game in the 2019/20 season and has not been modified since then”.
“It is faithful to what was explained in the FIFA and UEFA instructor courses. The CTA never changes the criteria during the current season and wants these explanations to clarify the issue,” the committee ruled.