Ex referee demands rule change after major VAR moment in Rangers vs Celtic as penalty raises eyebrows
Rangers and Celtic ended with a big moment courtesy of VAR,
An ex-referee has demanded a change to the handball rule after Rangers conceded a spot kick against Celtic.
The latest Old Firm ended 2-2 and it helps neither in their quest for the Premiership. Rangers are six points off leaders Hearts while Celtic sit eight off the pace with a game in hand, and it proved particularly painful for the Light Blues, who were two goals up at half-time after a commanding first 45.
Martin O’Neill’s visitors halved the deficit through a Kieran Tierney header and another cross into the Rangers box was headed onto the arm of Dujon Sterling by Daizen Maeda, home goalkeeper Jack Butland eventually making a big save. VAR intervened though to give Reo Hatate the chance to score the leveller from the penalty spot, which he missed, but bundled home on a second rebound.
Penalty vs Rangers against Celtic verdict
Keith Hackett, who previously was a referee at Premier League level, wants the handball rule changed to deliberate actions rather than Sterling’s which appeared unintentional. Newcastle United icon Alan Shearer had similar complaints after incidents in the Premier League this weekend and Hackett told Ibrox News: “The match officials in this situation under the handball law have no alternative other than to award a penalty kick.
“A red card for the denial of an obvious goal is not issued on the basis that the goalkeeper had a high probability of stopping the ball from entering the goal. Once again, the handball law creates controversy, and I support Alan Shearer that this law needs to change and we start to emphasise the word ‘deliberate’ action before awarding a free kick or penalty kick.”
Speaking on the ruling out of Burnley’s late leveller against Brentford for handball, Shearer told Match of the Day: "I just hate the handball rule. Whether it's today's decision at Burnley or any of the other controversial ones this season, they have messed it up.
What is law on handball rule?
"Now, they'll say that things are better in the Premier League than they are abroad, but that doesn't wash with me. It is so messed up in every single way, there is 'deliberate', 'proximity', 'natural', 'unnatural.’ There are so many different ways they have to interpret things and it isn't fit for purpose. For fans to be sat in the stadium and waiting for three, four minutes, or for however long it took today at Turf Moor, it doesn't seem right and it isn't fair."
Lawmakers IFAB state: 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.”