Major change to handball rule with more penalties than ever before set to be awarded – but Premier League exempt

UEFA is set to tweak the handball rule – after admitting its referees made a huge mistake at Euro 2024.

The Uefa Referees Committee claims hosts Germany should have been awarded a penalty during their quarter-final loss to Spain.

Germany were left incensed after Chelsea’s Marc Cucurella appeared to handle in the area during extra time on July 5.

Anthony Taylor, the on-field referee, and VAR Stuart Atwell, decided not to award a spot-kick after a lengthy review.

Eventual champions Spain would go on to win the game in the 119th minute, leaving Cucurella to be booed for the remainder of the tournament.

Following the incident, Uefa’s Referees Committee has recommended a change to its handball guidelines.

It wants to “strictly punish” instances where a player’s hand blocks a shot on target.

According to Spanish publication Revelo, the report reads: “Following the latest UEFA guidelines, hand-to-ball contact that stops a shot on goal should be punished more strictly.

“And in most cases a penalty kick should be awarded, unless the defender’s arm is very close to the body or on the body.”

Referencing the Cucurella incident, it continues: “In this case, the defender stops the shot on goal with his arm, which is not very close to the body, making himself bigger, so a penalty kick should have been awarded.”

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The committee concluded that although a penalty should have been given, Cucurella should not have been booked.

Changes to the Uefa guidelines are likely to see more penalties awarded for handball.

The tweaks will not however impact the Premier League, a separate governing body.

German coach Julian Nagelsmann was inconsolable following ref Taylor’s decision.

But he called for the handball rule to be reviewed in light of the incident.

Nagelsmann said: “They applied the rule and it was not a penalty. I do not feel cheated.

“For me, the question is about making it more practical, more logical, in terms of how this [handball] rule is assessed.

“I say this for football [overall], not just today.

“You look at the hand. If it is at 3 o’clock, if it is a bit higher or a bit lower.

“But there are people with bigger muscles than me, different movements.

“Is it going into the clouds or is it going in the goal? In one case it is a penalty, in the other, it is not. If it is going into the stands, then it is no penalty.”