Premier League managers rally against 'ludicrous' changes to the handball law

A group of the Premier League’s most senior managers are ready to make a direct appeal to football’s governing bodies to overrule “ludicrous” changes to the handball law.

Steve Bruce, the Newcastle United manager, called the new Premier League interpretation of the rule “a total nonsense” even after his team salvaged a draw with a penalty in added time against Tottenham Hotspur when Andy Carroll headed the ball into Eric Dier’s arm.

Roy Hodgson had described the rule as “completely unacceptable” on Saturday after Crystal Palace’s defeat and said that it was “destroying” his enjoyment of football.

Jose Mourinho also predicted that, “for some”, it could now “easily” become a tactic in football to simply get into the penalty area and then kick the ball as hard as possible in the direction of an opponent’s arm.

Football’s rulemakers, the International Football Association Board, have introduced the most substantial set of changes to the handball rule this century in recent seasons - and the most controversial relates to the issue of intent. The Premier League had previously instructed referees to give players extra leeway for ricocheted handballs that were impossible to avoid, but were told this summer by Fifa to fall into line with the rest of football. As well as allowing referees to use pitchside monitors for VAR decisions, that meant awarding fouls for handball whenever a player was deemed to have made their body “unnaturally bigger” with their arm regardless of intent.

As in Serie A and La Liga last season, that has already led to a drastic increase in the number of Premier League penalties and a spate of decisions when players have clearly not meant to use their arm.

“I think we have to get together as the managers, the coaches, to go to the Premier League and say this must stop,” said Bruce. “It’s a total nonsense. We have got one today, we should be jumping for joy but I would be devastated if it was against us. I would be absolutely outraged. Roy is right. It’s ludicrous.

“If you are going to jump, like Dier did, it's impossible for your arms not to go up to give you the balance. The handball rule had been around for 100 years. Now we are ruining the spectacle.”

Jan Vertonghen, the former Tottenham defender, said that “serious questions” should also be asked inside the Football Association. “Absolutely shocking decisions and they are hiding behind the referees,” he said.

Mourinho tried not to comment directly on the handball incident but walked straight down the tunnel immediately after the incident to avoid any confrontation with referee Peter Bankes. Spurs goalkeeping coach Nuno Santos, however, was less restrained and was shown a red card after confronting Bankes.

Mourinho cited an unwillingness to get fined by the FA as an explanation for his reticence to talk but did back Hodgson’s assessment and complained that Totteham had been disrespected.

“Mr Roy [Hodgson] is our boss, the man with more experience, the man with the age, the man in the Premier League I always consider the boss,” he said. “He has the status, the knowhow, respected by everyone.

“The only feeling that I am ready to share is I don’t feel Tottenham is respected according to what the club is. No respect. [For] everything this club did over the past years and we want to do in the future, we deserve a bit more.”

Of Santos’s sending off, he said: “The only thing that I know is that I'm more experienced than him and I left down the tunnel when the referee blew the whistle. So Nuno was a little bit more naive than me and he stayed there. I protect myself.”

Former players and managers lined up to support Bruce, Hodgson and Mourinho. Jamie Carragher, the former Liverpool captain, said that the rulemakers were “ruining football”.

Graeme Souness, another former Liverpool captain, called the handball law “ridiculously harsh” while Spurs legend Glenn Hoddle asked, “Can we have our game back?” Former England captain Alan Shearer urged Fifa and IFAB to go back to “go back to what it was years ago” and described Saturday’s penalty against Palace as “madness”.