28 April 2023 , 01:00
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Aleksander Ceferin has claimed “nobody in the world understands when it’s handball or not.”
Ceferin has added to the growing debate as UEFA’s newly formed Football Board has also called on the game’s lawmakers to clarify the handball law.
UEFA president Ceferin said: “Handball, nobody in the world understands when it’s handball or not. We had the best coaches in the world in a room, we showed them a situation where a ball hits the hand of a player and we said: ‘Penalty or no penalty?’
“Half said penalty, half said no penalty. Those are coaches of the best teams in the world. I think that the referee on the pitch should decide because, otherwise, we don’t need a referee anymore; we can just have a machine that says handball or no handball.
“And I don’t like it. I don’t like it, and we have to, and we will start working on that, to tell the referees that they have to decide if it’s a natural move or not, and so on.”
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Ceferin’s remarks were made on the Men In Blazers podcast where he also hinted a future Champions League final could be held in the United States and called for salary caps to be introduced.
But the handball issue is an immediate issue for football as no-one is quite sure anymore. West Ham screamed for a penalty in their defeat to Liverpool when Thiago appeared to handle the ball in the dying stages.
West Ham wanted a penalty after the ball hit Liverpool midfielder Thiago's arm (Getty Images)The new Board - with England boss Gareth Southgate among 20 big names to attend a meeting in Nyon along with the likes of Patrick Vieira, Zinedine Zidane and Jurgen Klinsmann - have also called for it no longer to be handball if it defected onto their arm from another part of their body.
Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp was amusing after the West Ham victory in his post-match interview with the BBC’s excellent Jonathan Pearce. When Pearce asked him what he made of the decision, Klopp initially said he did not see it, asked Pearce what he thought and the BBC man said penalty.
At which point, Klopp, albeit in very good spirits, quickly backtracked and said he did not think it was a penalty.
The sorry state of Spurs
Tottenham has been painted as a complete shambles after interim boss Cristian Stellini was the last manager to be sacked.
It was a bizarre appointment as Stellini in the first place and very little changed from Antonio Conte’s reign other than the players actually getting the odd day off under the caretaker boss.
Tottenham are still feeling the impact of Antonio Conte's divisive reign (Getty Images)But the biggest issue of all at the club has undoubtedly become the academy. It felt completely cut off under Conte and young players and coaches have complained of being isolated with no hope of making a breakthrough.
That is a sorry state of affairs at a club which, down the years, has prided itself on producing a long line of homegrown talents.
Three Lions backed
England fans are second to none when it comes to supporting their team around the world.
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And if you needed proof, there were 6,000 applications for tickets for England’s game in Malta on June 16 and 4,000 are going in total.
Success of standing crackdown
Premier League clubs introduced new stewarding and security measures after the crowd trouble at the end of the season.
Clubs agreed to pay for their own stewards to travel to away games so fans see a familiar face and they may be more receptive.
The original plan was to use three stewards per 1,000 fans but, because of cost implications, clubs voted to reduce it to two on a trial basis.
It remains to be seen whether it will continue next season but some clubs have viewed it as such a success they will continue with it whether it is voted through or not.
He's Scott form
Alex Scott is on the radar of several Premier League clubs (Alex Davidson/Getty Images)Bristol City prospect Alex Scott won the EFL’s Young Player of the Year and will have no shortage of offers from the Premier League this summer.
Liverpool and Wolves have been heavily linked with the 19-year-old who follows in good footsteps as Jude Bellingham plus fellow England internationals Ollie Watkins and Dele Alli have all been previous winners.
Hand of Hodge still on the mic
Former England midfielder Steve Hodge famously pocketed £7m after keeping and then auctioning off Diego Maradona’s “Hand of God” shirt from the 1986 World Cup quarter final with Argentina.
But despite his new found wealth, Hodge still enjoys working as an analyst on Forest games for BBC Radio Nottingham for a nominal match fee and he also gets paid as an ambassador for his old club Leeds.
Colleagues say he has not changed a bit - and wind him up that he still does not buy any half time teas and coffees.