THE REPORT | “Only deliberate hands are penalties; the others, no “

Soccer in general and Spanish in particular are desperately fighting against a scourge that has settled in their guts and there is no way to eradicate it. When should a hand occurring within the area be sanctioned with the maximum penalty of the penalty and when not? The wise proverb of the Spanish language tells that “what is not understood is that it is badly done or badly explained.” Precisely what happens with this endemic evil that plagues the competition and that those responsible are not able to clarify or unify criteria.

Last Sunday the penultimate controversial action took place in the Madrid derby. Felipe's hand was interpreted in two different ways by the field referee and by the VAR referee. The first considered that she was not worthy of being punished with a penalty; the second, on the contrary, was very clear that he did deserve that sanction. Otherwise, if he was not totally convinced that his partner had made a mistake, he would not have recommended that he go to the monitor to review the play. Let us remember that the VAR is only there to reexamine flagrant actions, to be able to rectify clear and manifest errors.

It is obligatory to recall that in the times when the VAR had not come into the world, the issue of the hands was trivial compared to the present. This is explained by five former international referees, with whom AS has tried to find some light within the current tidal wave that cannot even be solved with the new technological tool made available to the referees.

With a World Cup (2002), a Eurocup (1996), three UEFA Cup finals (European record), 11 years international, 15 in the First Division (231 games), five trophies for the best Spanish referee, Antonio Jesús López Nieto can be considered as an expert in the field. His concern about the situation that has been reached with the specific issue of the hands is relevant as can be deduced from his words.

“I know that the current nomenclature that we are using at many times confuses. What is natural or unnatural? What is invasive or non-invasive? For me, the primary concept to sanction these types of hands should be intentionality, deliberate hands have to be punished, and if the accidental issue is to be accepted, the difficulty or risk of the move must be assessed, not the player. Non-transcendent hands should not be penalized for the game. We cannot be making a physiological map, if the hand is a little higher or lower. We find ourselves with almost equal hands with different decisions and how we explain it to the general public ”.

López Nieto is convinced that the new surnames with which he has wanted to limit each action make it difficult for him to understand. “If it is already difficult to advance with deliberate hands, if we put more concepts into them, if we limit more, what is happening will continue to happen. In my time we took the real penalties, the deliberate ones, although we also missed many. Now we have come to a big problem. The play of last Sunday in the derby will be repeated the next day and the other. What happens is that when it happens in a derby or a Real Madrid-Barcelona it has a greater impact. In Valencia-Villarreal there was an equal or similar play and a penalty was called. I also have to admit that referees in similar plays make mistakes or interpret them differently because in the end we are people ”.

What he does consider vital is that the criteria be unified among the referees. “At least we have to try to make sure that we are clear about the concepts, that there is unanimity. In many cases we do not have it because the multitude of concepts surpasses natural intelligence. What if natural, what if invasive, what if over the shoulder…. We wanted to limit, reduce so much that we forget a concept that I always use, which is the feeling. The crucial thing is the importance of the play. An action, even if the hand is accidental, if the ball goes to the goal and is going to score, my hand is separated and the ball hits me, even if it is not intentional … a penalty is awarded and there is no talk of that move. Or if it is a definitive pass that it is seen that the partner can mark, nothing happens either. But if that same absurd play occurs in the corner of the area, that the ball goes out, you hit it with your hand and a penalty is awarded… it is not understood. What impact does this action have on the game? None real or important. The player knows that when he has a split hand he has a risk, but what you cannot is call an unnatural hand to a hand in which you are jumping and it is detached. I challenge anyone to jump with their hands close to their body. That is what is unnatural. “

Recognizes that unfortunately it is not a unique problem of Spanish football. “FIFA and UEFA are trying every day to turn this issue out of hand and every time they turn it around, even with good intentions, they complicate it more. The season passed that the space of the body between the armpit and the shoulder was enabled. Who exactly refines with which part they have lowered it? The path of actions in which the hands go into action is increasingly complicated. The other day a journalist told me that Felipe's penalty in real football is not whistled and in current football, yes. I totally agree with him. What we have to pretend is that football has its continuous truth ”.

His fear is that, given the situation, the picaresque will complicate the matter even more. “It can come to the case where a skillful player, with good hitting, goes to throw the ball directly against the unnatural hand detached from the body and at worst, in a play that has no significance, the penalty that has forced the contrary. We are reaching dangerous limits. It is not from now, we have been six, seven, eight years with our hands adrift. What happens is that now with the VAR you can see more. The play of the derby seemed like a penalty to one referee and not to the other. But it is that 48 hours before, with a similar play, it happened the other way around. I who have been in this for 50 years and I am still active, I am confused, how the fans are not going to be at home “.

Emilio Soriano Aladrén is pleased to have been the youngest Spanish referee to reach international status at the time. On your business card you have to have directed a World Cup (Italy-90), two European Cups (1988 and 1992), 15 years as an international and 17 in the First Division. He maintains his maximum attention to the refereeing situation and, of course, to the controversial matter at hand.

“There is a protocol problem. The instructions given to the referees are not sufficiently explained. There are three or four cases of these different plays. No more. And the referees would have to know them by heart and it is not like that. The hands, and more in the area, have always been conflicting for us. In Sunday's action, if you see it in a frontal shot you see a penalty like a cathedral, but if you see it in a side shot, you clearly see that the player has no intention whatsoever and I use that word knowing that it has been eradicated from the statement of the rules. A penalty can only be awarded when a hand is deliberate, not to say the intended word”.

Soriano recounts how the evolution of punishable hands has been. “First we only talked about intentionality, then it began to take into account if the hand in question cut important plays and began to sanction them, but now hands are called in actions in which the players are on their backs or on their sides and that can not be. The important thing is the disposition that the footballer has to the game with his hands and arms. If there is no provision to use them, it means that you want to play the ball and then it is not punishable.”.

It is absolutely against globalizing the position. “It is not possible to reach the conclusion of sanctioning all the hands in the area as a penalty. This is a game. The arms are part of the dynamics of a body, they accompany all the movements you make. Before players put their hands down to cover their parts, now they are obsessed with putting them back. They even jump with their hands glued to avoid being hit by the ball. What must be clear is the position of the offender with respect to the ball. There is no unification of criteria when a referee is in the VAR or is on the field. They judge actions differently depending on where they are. They have two different criteria. Now the VAR beeps more than the referee and it should not be like that. The VAR is fantastic, but it has not given me the satisfaction that I expected. I thought that it was going to reach the maximum possible perfection and it has not been reached ”.

Former director of the National Referees Committee for 17 years, the Asturian referee was present at a World Cup (1994), a European Championship (1996) and an Olympic Games (1992). He whistled the 96 Champions League final and spent 13 seasons in the First Division, 10 of them with the international cockade. He is not very in favor of entering into the controversy raised with the issue of the hands, mainly because of his recent past, but it is clear that it is an issue that he is passionate about and in the end, although with the handbrake on, he offers his version.

“The intention has to be at the base of the sanction. Within the rules of the game, anything that is not deliberate is not punishable. And everything that is intentional is malicious. You have to separate the deliberate hand and the casual hand. These never carry a sanction. If the ball hits the hand of a player whose back is turned, even with open arms, it cannot be punishable. A hand that is resting on the ground cannot be taken into account either. A hand that is very close and could be accidental, either. From there, the criteria of which you have to take into account is set, all in which you try to obtain a benefit with its use. Those that are over the shoulder must be penalized, unless it is a blow from behind without the player seeing it. Any hand in the player's field of vision may be a violation by action or by omission. And I say by default because a player whose arm is separated may not want to play it, but he has no intention of avoiding it ”.

Felipe's action in the derby is closed for Díaz Vega between the plays in which the player does not have the will to hit the ball with his hand. “It must be analyzed if when the ball passes the head of the player who wants to play the ball with his head, does the arm have any movement? The ball falls from above in a slip form and hits your forearm, can it be punishable? If the player in those hundredths of a second was given time to do it intentionally, it is a coincidence that football must have the capacity to assume. And if it is a coincidence, you cannot penalize it ”.

The Asturian starts from the basis that the philosophy of the rule is always based on the spirit of the game. “What does the player want to do, what did the game demand at that time? What is a hand offense? Playing the ball deliberately with the hand. Accidentally or unintentionally, it is not a violation. The VAR has nothing to do with this. The VAR is a scanner that helps you clarify the play once it has passed if it has not been clear, but the issue of the hands is easy to narrow it down. The problem with the hands is that nobody understands it. You have to give the referee clear ideas ”.

International. 14 seasons in the First Division.

“The most important thing would be for the referees to agree on the issue of the hands. Talking to some of them, they tell you that they are not clear with such a specification. And then you have to have deliberate actions and not meridians. As much as it is removed from the norm, intention must always be present in the game and more in the hands ”.

“Sunday's play is a true reflection of what is happening. For Hernández Hernández it is not a penalty because he sees the ball fall into his hand and for González González, yes, because he sees the position of the hand. That can not be. The VAR referee got into a puddle that he should never get into because the play is more than gray, which is the terminology they use. It is a play of interpretation by the court referee. Why does the VAR get into a stock it shouldn't get into? I am the field referee and I send him to hell ”.

International. 14 years in the First Division. Collegiate with more ‘Classics’ refereed: 15.

“The controversy arises because the referees are human and can interpret the rules that have been explained to them about the hands in different ways. Any hand that occupies an unnatural space within the area must be penalized with a penalty. Another thing is that the ball comes through the air and hits you in the arm, that is not a penalty. All hands that cut a ball that go towards a goal, even if it is by instinctual movement, are penalties. You have to apply logic and logic is intentionality or unintentionality in some plays. Unintentional hands should not be penalties unless they are excessively detached from the body. In my time it was interpreted whether the hand was involuntary or not. Now with the VAR images there are different approaches to the play. Although the action is the same, on television the plays are seen from different perspectives than on the field ”.