Former Manchester United defender, Danny Higginbotham has called for a change to the handball rules after Spurs were awarded a ridiculous penalty against them when they faced Newcastle yesterday.
The penalty was awarded against Eric Dier after his hands were adjudged to not be in its natural position when Andy Carroll headed the ball against him.
It was yet another baffling decision aided by the controversial VAR and Higginbotham thinks it is now getting harder for defenders to simply defend the ball in their box.
He remarked that formerly defenders are concerned about simply defending, however, now they have to worry about the position of their hands when they are in their box, which makes no sense.
He fears that attackers will soon start to deliberately attempt to get the ball to the hands of defenders.
The former defender suggests that ex players need to help the VAR officials at Stockley Park since they have the first-hand experience in playing the game.
“Being a defender, when a player entered the box my first thought was how to defend but now players are having to think about where their hands are and it is wrong.” He wrote on Sun Sports.
“What is an unnatural position? Forcing defenders to put their hands behind their back is unnatural.
“And by doing that they are at a disadvantage. Their balance is off and they are unable to change direction quickly if they need too.
“From a player’s perspective, there is never any intent when your hands are by your side so it is ridiculous to see all these handballs being given.
“It seems every time a defender handles the ball in the box it is a penalty whereas attackers can now get away with it.
“It will get to a point where attackers will tactically attempt to hit arms and if that happens we should all go home.
He added: “Getting former players into Stockley Park would help massively because they could talk from experience.
“These issues could easily be solved with minor changes.”
Haringey borough 0. Leatherhead 1. 😔. Six form nine ain’t a bad start. Up the spuringey
In 2007, a US basketball ref Tim Donaghy was found guilt of betting on games that he officiated in. He said that it was easy to fix games due to being able to call borderline fouls at the right time. He claimed that this was not cheating. Soccer rules have not changed but it appears that these new interpretations are creating circumstances that enable match officials to behave in the same way. When VAR was proposed one of its major claimed benefits was that it would help referees to detect players diving. To date, there is no evidence of this happening. It seems in many cases referees are lazy and only give fouls when a player falls over. Towards the end of the Spurs Newcastle game a Newcastle player knew that he could not control the ball and so threw himself at an opposition player. Mr Bankes, the referee, gave him a free kick. Officials have a job to do, decisions to make. Too often it seems they take the easy way out abdicating their responsibility. VAR in itself is not the problem. Applied properly it could help in making fairer decisions. The real issue is match officials and their incompetence in making best use of cameras, We have now reached the stage where whether this incompetence is natural or deliberate is up for debate.
Won’t happen until the end of the season as if they do, there will be a massive outcry from those clubs who had penalties awarded against them.
Easily resolved, I very much doubt that.