First I want to thank John for not pointing out that the referee and linesman who missed the conspicuous ‘handball’ were from my country of origin. There is now even some absurd debate raging as to who was the main culprit: the player who intentionally committed a ‘handball’ or the referee who did not catch it…

But it brings up an issue that has an interest also in ‘real’ handball. An ironic twist to the whole story is that UEFA President Michel Platini, a former star player from France(!), has pushed UEFA to experiment in the 2009-10 edition of the ‘Europa League’ with the utilization of two ‘goal judges’ in addition to the normal complement of referee and ‘linesmen’. These judges are supposed to help determine with greater certainty if a ball actually crossed the goal line, but they are also expected to intervene in the case of any type of violations near the goal, precisely such as Thierry Henry’s handball, if the referee somehow fails to see it.

One can be almost certain that if FIFA had adopted Platini’s idea for the World Cup qualifying matches, the deciding ‘handball’ would have been detected, and France would have been out! Now FIFA has to deal with the embarrassment. Both UEFA and FIFA, just like the IHF, have experimented with new, emerging equipment that is intended to determine electronically if a ball has fully crossed the line. However, it is apparent that this type of equipment has not yet been sufficiently developed to be trusted in major events. This is one reason why Platini, who in any case has stated that he is generally against drawing too much on technology, went for the ‘human’ solution.

Handball has its goal-line referee position, so the only part that is interesting for handball is the goal-line sensor, determining ‘goal or no goal’ in those situations, for instance a fast-break, where the referee cannot yet be in a goal-line position when the shot is taken. It is unclear when sufficient technological progress will have been made on this point. But handball also needs to deal with the broader issue of using modern technology, especially in the form of video review. Before I left the IHF, I left behind a draft for an initial policy in this area. I can only hope that it will not collect dust for too long. Handball may not be able to use video reviews as extensively as some other sports do, but some suitable situations can clearly be identified. Let’s hope action will be coming, and perhaps I will offer some concrete ideas in a future posting.

Finally, returning to John’s point about the different types of ‘handball’, including the one that is illegal in football/soccer. The Australians have just decided to dump the name ‘soccer’ in favor of football. It is too bad that we Americans cannot do the same, just because someone in our country stupidly decided to put the label ‘football’ on a game that cannot possibly do justice to that name, considering that it is nearly all about hands…