Was it handball?   Did the player dive?

When it comes to the awarding of penalties we need clear guidelines.

At the moment, seasoned professionals cannot agree.   The referee in the middle has to make an on-the-spur-of-the-moment decision which is often overturned by fellow professionals at Critchley Park who have the benefit of time to consider the various factors.   The VAR decision is still often contentious.   The “factors” of what is deemed a penalty or, indeed, what is not a penalty are unclear.   We need clarity, not just for the Premier League football but for all professional football as well as those who play the game at grass-roots level.

It may sound odd that basketball can offer any help over the defining of clear guidelines particularly when it comes to things like handball.   There is no such thing as handball in basketball.   The game is all about using one’s hands.   Handball in football can be considered a foul and there are clear guidelines in place, where basketball is concerned, as to what constitutes a foul.   You only have a personal tally of five fouls in basketball before you have to leave the game.   Personal contact is the main reason for awarding a foul.   A player needs to know exactly what behaviours are likely to lead towards the awarding of a foul.   It is an unwritten rule in basketball that individual players should operate within a cylindrical shape if they do not want to incur a foul.   This means that players have to keep their bodies, including arms and legs, within the imaginary cylinder.   If an arm or a leg comes outside the cylinder shape and there is contact with an opponent, a foul could ensue.   These same principles ought to be the ones that apply to fouls in football.

The Eric Dier handball which resulted in Tottenham conceding a penalty at the end of their match with Newcastle at the weekend has caused a certain amount of controversy.   Jamie Carragher’s point is that you can’t jump without raising your arms, therefore it wasn’t a penalty.   Roy Keene saying it was a penalty because it hit an out-flaying arm of Dier’s.   The basketball principles would concur with Keene.

The point here is that whilst it may be more difficult to jump not using one’s arms, in fact Dier did jump not using his arms.   It was only as he landed did the arm go up in the air, outside the cylindrical shape, and the ball hit his arm.   The other way of viewing this from a player perspective is if you do want to use your arms in jumping better make sure you also win the ball.

The same principles should apply on the ground in the penalty box.   If a leg comes out, usually with the view to winning the ball, and contact occurs you risk giving a penalty away.   Defensive technique needs to adapt to not trying to win the ball, particularly in the penalty area.   Defending players should concentrate on moving one’s feet quickly in order to maintain a good defensive position.   There is a drill often used as a training exercise in basketball where the defensive player defends one-versus-one against the attacking player with the ball with their hands behind the back.   Defend with your feet, not your hands.   Footballers should also defend with their feet and do not try to win the ball.