{"id":8823,"date":"2026-03-05T14:35:04","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T09:05:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/2026\/03\/05\/handball-offside-var-is-football-too-complicated\/"},"modified":"2026-03-05T14:35:04","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T09:05:04","slug":"handball-offside-var-is-football-too-complicated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/2026\/03\/05\/handball-offside-var-is-football-too-complicated\/","title":{"rendered":"Handball, offside, VAR &#8211; is football too complicated?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sport\/topics\/cglgnp4394wt\">Dale Johnson<\/a>Football issues correspondent<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Published1 hour ago<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#comments\">68 Comments<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Bill Shankly once said that &quot;football is a simple game, complicated by people who should know better&quot;.<\/p>\n<p>Shankly, in charge of <a href=\"\/sport\/football\/teams\/liverpool\">Liverpool<\/a> between 1959 and 1974, managed in a simpler era, a time without rolling news, social media and, of course, the video assistant referee (VAR).<\/p>\n<p>If he were managing today, he might consider using stronger words.<\/p>\n<p>From handball, to offside and VAR, it has become difficult for supporters to follow what is going on.<\/p>\n<p>Has football really become a more complicated game?<\/p>\n<p>And if so, who is to blame?<\/p>\n<h2>Handball &#8211; the law that has everyone guessing<\/h2>\n<p>There seems to be no greater confusion than the handball law.<\/p>\n<p>It has changed so many times in recent years that it has been pretty much impossible to keep up.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;I just hate the handball rule,&quot; Alan Shearer told BBC Sport. &quot;They have messed it up. <\/p>\n<p>&quot;They&#x27;ll say that things are better in the Premier League than they are abroad, but that doesn&#x27;t wash with me. <\/p>\n<p>&quot;It is so messed up in every single way, there is &#x27;deliberate&#x27;, &#x27;proximity&#x27;, &#x27;natural&#x27;, &#x27;unnatural&#x27; &#8211; there are so many different ways they have to interpret things and it isn&#x27;t fit for purpose.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>Shearer did not even mention the contradictory accidental attacking handball law which automatically disallows a goal. <\/p>\n<p>It created an offence for a striker which a defender would get away with. <\/p>\n<p>The law&#x27;s application might not feel like it is better in the Premier League but &#8211; in terms of penalties awarded &#8211; it demonstrably is, with fewer penalties awarded on average than in any of the other major European leagues.<\/p>\n<p>But that does not mean it is good.<\/p>\n<p>There is a misconception that the handball law was changed for VAR, but it happened the other way around.<\/p>\n<p>The International Football Association Board (Ifab) started work on redefining handball in 2014 &#8211; two years before trials of VAR began. <\/p>\n<p>Those changes created a menu of justifications for handball. <\/p>\n<p>When the video assistant came into the game, it was too easy to give penalties. It just required finding one clause to tick off &#8211; and there was a huge spike in spot-kicks across leagues.<\/p>\n<p>VAR proved to be incompatible with the new law. It has been changed many, many times in recent seasons to try to find a solution. <\/p>\n<p>Fans would love to go back to the days when handball really was a basic judgement call.<\/p>\n<p>But the genie is out of the bottle.<\/p>\n<p>Any change would have to be defined. And with that new definition to contend with, we would probably be no better off.<\/p>\n<h2>Ducking and diving &#8211; the subjective offside<\/h2>\n<p>There have been several contentious subjective offside decision this season &#8211; when a player does not touch the ball but impacts an opponent. <\/p>\n<p>Take Virgil van Dijk&#x27;s disallowed goal for <a href=\"\/sport\/football\/teams\/liverpool\">Liverpool<\/a> during their 3-0 defeat at <a href=\"\/sport\/football\/teams\/manchester-city\">Manchester City<\/a> on 9 November. <\/p>\n<p>Andrew Robertson ducked under the ball and was ruled to be affecting goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma. <a href=\"\/sport\/football\/articles\/c9wvw7eyvepo\">It caused a lot of controversy<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>There were complaints that the lawmakers had tinkered too much &#8211; that offside was now too complicated.<\/p>\n<p>Yet this has always been in the laws. <\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/downloads.theifab.com\/downloads\/laws-of-the-game-1903-04?l=en\">1903-04 edition, <!-- -->external<\/a> states that a player cannot &quot;in any way whatever interfere with an opponent or the play&quot;.<\/p>\n<p>Otherwise attackers would have carte blanche to stand close to opponents, or make movements, in the hope of influencing a goal.<\/p>\n<p>Considering how the &quot;dark arts&quot; seem to be on the rise, changing this would have unintended consequences. <\/p>\n<p>It might be annoying, and there will always be edge cases, but this is not going to change.<\/p>\n<h2>&#x27;Deliberate play&#x27; &#8211; not all is what it seems<\/h2>\n<p>When is deliberately playing the ball not deliberate? Well, when it is a &quot;deliberate play&quot;.<\/p>\n<p>And that sums up this law perfectly. <\/p>\n<p>It was introduced in 2016-17 season to define how a touch by a defender might reset an offside phase.<\/p>\n<p>But referees were applying this strictly, so offside players were benefitting unfairly.<\/p>\n<p>It was tweaked after Kylian Mbappe&#x27;s <a href=\"\/sport\/football\/58931911\">controversial winning goal<\/a> for France against Spain in the 2021 Uefa Nations League final.<\/p>\n<p>Eric Garcia had stretched for a ball, made a small amount of contact and it played Mbappe onside.<\/p>\n<p>The Ifab clarified the law to say a defender needed to have the expectation of a controlled outcome.<\/p>\n<p>But it is still called &quot;deliberate play&quot;. <\/p>\n<p>So, a defender can deliberately play the ball &#8211; but if they do not have control it is not a &quot;deliberate play&quot;.<\/p>\n<p>Clear as mud.  <\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"\/sport\/football\/articles\/c0431l6lzpyo\">\n<p>How can football&#x27;s lawmakers fix the corner chaos?<\/p>\n<p><\/a><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Published2 days ago<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"\/sport\/football\/articles\/cdxzerk1yr9o\">\n<p>More VAR challenge trials expected during review<\/p>\n<p><\/a><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Published4 days ago<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"\/sport\/football\/articles\/cdxz2ey2lz2o\">\n<p>Is VAR any better in the rest of Europe&#x27;s top leagues?<\/p>\n<p><\/a><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Published18 February<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Double jeopardy and advantage &#8211; the goalposts keep moving<\/h2>\n<p>Ifab has been messing around with the considerations for denying an obvious goalscoring opportunity (Dogso) when a penalty has been awarded too.<\/p>\n<p>If a defender makes an attempt to play the ball or challenge the opponent, it is a yellow card. <\/p>\n<p>But now it has to be a really cynical foul, or a push or a pull, for there to be a red card.<\/p>\n<p>If a defender makes a challenge and the ball is anywhere in the vicinity, it is only a caution.<\/p>\n<p>What was a red card a few years ago would not be today.<\/p>\n<p>Take the law concerning advantage, too.<\/p>\n<p>Gabriel Martinelli was sent to the ground by <a href=\"\/sport\/football\/teams\/chelsea\">Chelsea<\/a>&#x27;s Pedro Neto on Sunday.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"\/sport\/football\/teams\/arsenal\">Arsenal<\/a> forward got to his feet and continued the attack &#8211; but referee Darren England stopped the game and showed Neto a second yellow card.<\/p>\n<p>Understandably, many Gunners fans were annoyed that the referee did not play advantage.<\/p>\n<p>But the law says advantage cannot be played when a red card needs to be shown &#8211;  unless the attacking team could score immediately.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"\/sport\/football\/teams\/arsenal\">Arsenal<\/a> fans did not know and the boos rang out. <\/p>\n<h2>So is VAR to blame?<\/h2>\n<p>We all know the frustration VAR has brought. <\/p>\n<p>It has slowed down the game and led to the microscopic offsides that most fans hate.<\/p>\n<p>More crucially, it has turned the game into an exam.<\/p>\n<p>Fans used to be able to sit and a watch a match, disagree with a decision and get on with their lives.<\/p>\n<p>Today, there is a detailed explanation of every little thing &#8211; from a potential red card, to a player&#x27;s arm position, to the convoluted considerations for violent conduct.<\/p>\n<p>Supporters might feel a little patronised. <\/p>\n<p>Sometimes the justification for their opinion is simply years watching the game.<\/p>\n<p>Now they are being told they are wrong because of a collection of clauses hidden away in guidance shown only to referees.<\/p>\n<p>VAR has changed football from a simple game into a technical debrief.<\/p>\n<h2>But wait &#8230; it is going to get a whole lot more complicated<\/h2>\n<p>Saturday&#x27;s Ifab meeting was one of the busiest there has been.<\/p>\n<p>A raft of <a href=\"\/sport\/football\/articles\/cg7e15d4lvlo\">law changes were introduced<\/a> for the World Cup and the 2026-27 season onwards. <\/p>\n<p>It is going to make the game even more complicated for anyone who has not been following. <\/p>\n<p>There will be VAR checks on corners, and to review second yellow cards once awarded. But not goal-kicks and potential second yellow cards.<\/p>\n<p>There will be a five-second countdown on throws and goal-kicks. But not corners. <\/p>\n<p>Substituted players will have 10 seconds to leave the field. <\/p>\n<p>Players who get treatment will have to stay off for one minute. <\/p>\n<p>Dogso is going to get more complicated, too.<\/p>\n<p>And then there is the trialling of Arsene Wenger&#x27;s <a href=\"\/sport\/football\/articles\/c17zw81yxp5o\">&quot;daylight&quot; offside idea.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The game is not going to get any simpler.<\/p>\n<h2>Related topics<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"\/sport\/football\/premier-league\">Premier League<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"\/sport\/football\">Football<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>More on this story<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"\/sport\/football\/articles\/ce8e6y90g2jo\">\n<p>Follow your club with BBC Sport<\/p>\n<p><\/a><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Published17 October 2025<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"\/sport\/articles\/cl5q9dk9jl3o\">\n<p>Get football news sent straight to your phone<\/p>\n<p><\/a><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Published16 August 2025<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Handball, offside, VAR &#8211; is football too complicated?Image source, Getty ImagesImage caption, The video assistant referee (VAR) was introduced to the Premier League in 2019ByDale JohnsonFootball issue&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":8824,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8823","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-decor"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8823","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8823"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8823\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8824"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}