Also is a penalty a penalty? Some will be obvious, but many aren't and some contact looks worse in slo-mo than at full pace. Perhaps penalties should only be judged at normal speed. I saw one incident recently that looked one thing at normal speed and another when viewed slowly....a coming together of two players looked like an accident at normal speed, but, when viewed in slo-mo, it looked deliberate because one player appeared to look at the other player before the collision. A flick of the eyes (an entirely natural action when you suddenly realise you are about to collide) looked like an appraisal before a deliberate shoulder barge. Eye movement can be a reflex that is faster than conscious thought. Slo-mo should be used sparingly...as should VAR imo.
Players need to get used to the fact that if you're arms are not down by your side and the ball hits your arm it's a penalty from next season. There will be a huge increase in penalties next season in the PL.
To be fair to Tom, he is representative of referees and football rule-makers in general, who don’t appear to have any idea of how football is actually played.
Aye, but the chances of those interpretations differing, is reduced with the benefit of a video replay.
So can we expect players to deliberately chip the ball towards a player’s outstretched arm and be given a penalty? Or will there still be an element of common sense that says “no penalty” as the handball was unavoidable owing to the close proximity of the kicker to the “handballer”?
Yes is the short answer. The wording used is actually 'natural silhouette'. That'll definitely clear things up.
The arm shouldn't be outstretched in the first place. If the ball hits an outstretched arm it will be a penalty.