HandballHandball

Handball is the illegal contact/touch of the ball with the hand(s) and/or arm(s). However, it is not automatically a handball offence every time the ball touches a player’s hand/arm.

Only contact between the ball and the hand or the arm below the bottom of the armpit is considered when judging possible handball offences.

A handball offence is committed when a player (except the goalkeeper in their own penalty area):

• deliberately touches the ball with their hand/arm
• touches the ball with their hand/arm when it is in a position that makes their body unnaturally bigger and that position is not the result of their body moving fairly as part of play
• scores a goal against the other team with their hand/arm or scores immediately after the ball has touched their hand/arm (even if the touch was accidental)
  
  

A handball offence is not committed when a player:

• heads, kicks or plays the ball with another part of their body and it then hits their own hand/arm (unless the ball goes directly into the opponents’ goal or the player scores immediately afterwards)
• falls and the ball hits their supporting arm, which is between their body and the ground (unless the ball goes directly into the opponents’ goal or the player scores immediately afterwards, in which case a direct free kick is awarded to the other team)
• is hit on the hand/arm by the ball which has been played by a team-mate (unless the ball goes directly into the opponents’ goal or the player scores immediately afterwards, in which case a direct free kick is awarded to the other team)

A handball is punished with a direct free kick (or a penalty kick if the handball offence occurs in the player’s own penalty area).

In their own penalty area, goalkeepers are allowed to use their hand(s)/arm(s) to touch, catch and hold the ball, except:

• when they receive the ball directly from a team-mate from a throw-in or deliberate kick (backpass)
• after they have controlled the ball with their hand(s)/arm(s), released it and before it has touched another player

Goalkeepers are not allowed to handle the ball outside their own penalty area.

For more detailed information on this topic in the Laws of the Game, click here.