The International Football Association Board (IFAB), the FIFA body in charge of the rules of the football game, made changes on hand errors on Friday, March 5, 2021.

Three scenarios were adopted to validate a fault of hand. First, if a player deliberately touches the ball with his arm or hand. There is then a hand fault when the player touches the ball with his arm or with his hand having artificially increased the area covered by his body. That is to say ” when the position of his arm or his hand is not a consequence of the movement of his body “, explains the IFAB.

Finally, there is a hand fault, if a player scores directly with his hand or arm, even accidentally or immediately after the ball has touched his arm or hand.

However, the IFAB warns that accidental hands committed by a teammate of the goalscorer or generating a scoring opportunity will not be penalized. Unless they are so committed by the striker himself. These rules come into force on 1 st July 2021. The IFAB wishes in fact “give the players, coaches and officials more time to become familiar with the changes of the laws of the game”.

Changes in sight on offside

The IFAB Annual General Meeting also approved further clarifications to the 2021/22 Gaming Laws. In particular law 11. This is the definition of law 12 explaining that the arm starts at the bottom of the armpit must be used to judge offside positions. FIFA will therefore test Arsène Wenger’s proposal which aims to favor the attackers. This thesis would be that the offside does not exist when a part of the body of a player who can score a goal (except the arms) is on the same line as the defender or behind him at the start of the ball