Tyldesley launches campaign to axe controversial handball rule as Neville and Hodgson blast ‘nonsense ruining football’
ICONIC commentator Clive Tyldesley has launched an impassioned plea for fans up and down the nation to rise up and stand against the unpopular new handball rule.
Controversy was sparked once again yesterday, when Joel Ward was harshly penalised for a ‘handball’ after the ball struck him from close range.
And Slaven Bilic was left furious after the ball struck Kai Havertz in the build-up to Chelsea’s stoppage time equaliser at West Brom.
Amid the chaos Tyldesley, 66, wants fans to campaign to IFAB – football’s lawmakers.
He said: “This post is about handball, no, don’t press stop – you can change this.
“Roy Hodgson nailed it yesterday, we have let this happen. I’ve never known football so united about anything but it’s our fault, we demanded consistency and that’s what we’ve got – consistent insanity.
“The handball law is there to stop outfield players catching the ball or punching it away deliberately.
“The lawmakers have tried to make things clearer by defining deliberate… you cannot define deliberate.
“Intent is in the mind, it’s not in the body shape, we’ve all got different body language.
“Deliberate handball is a matter of opinion and always will be, get used to it. Don’t try to enshrine it in a hundred different directives.
Most read in Football
“These laws are not just for the Premier League and VAR, they are for all of the world’s greatest game.
“So who’s going to protect the referee who gives one of these handball penalties in a Sunday league game in East London this morning?
“Who’s going to tell the eight-year-old that cost their team a cup final that their body shape was unnatural?
“Yes there are bigger issues in the game, clubs going under, people being abused, and maybe we can change those in time too.
“But we can change this now. My opinion, just strip the law back so handball must be deliberate.
David Elleray is director of IFAB, let him know what you think
Clive Tyldesley
“If you want to add hand to ball not ball to hand as a guideline, fine. But full stop.
“At least we can then argue about individual intent, rather than individual body silhouette.
“David Elleray is director of IFAB, let him know what you think. Do not be abusive to him. Contact him and put your views rationally and reasonably, David Elleray.”
Ward can perhaps count himself as the unluckiest player in the Premier League this weekend, having given away the controversial kick.
Ex-Manchester United star Gary Neville was incensed when he saw the incident back, tweeting: “I’m just catching up with the action from yesterday and I’m fuming with that handball against Palace!
“Stop this please now @premierleague as this can’t carry on! VAR is starting to smooth out and this nonsense comes in!”
And Ward’s manager Hodgson, 73, was also unhappy.
He said: “It’s completely unacceptable. It’s destroying my enjoyment of the game of football.
“I can’t understand how everyone in the game – the Premier League, referees, managers and coaches – have allowed this rule to come into operation.
“I don’t want to profit from it or lose from it.
“I predict what will happen is players will start flicking the ball onto a hand and screaming ‘handball’.
“I do not believe in the rule. People in football find it hard to accept. The referee doesn’t think it is handball either. He doesn’t want to give it but has to, because that’s what he is told to do.”
More controversy was sparked at the Hawthorns, when Kai Havertz wasn’t penalised when the ball clearly struck his arm in the build-up to Chelsea’s equaliser.
West Brom manager Bilic fumed after the match: “It’s not that it looks like [a handball] or that it might be a handball, but what do you want me to do now? To say what I want to say and they fine me again? It’s unbelievable.
“You have a bunch of guys there who did everything to win the game, who defended great and to have two points taken from us in this manor with VAR is completely beyond me.
“I told the guys before the game this is a game of character, a game of mentality. We can’t outclass them but we can out-run them. We can’t give them anything but must grab whatever they give you and create and score goals.
“It is a very good performance from us but at the same time we are extremely disappointed with the outcome. Before the game it is a good point for us but the way it happened in the dying seconds of the game – it’s unbelievable.”