Falling and "handling" the ball
This has happened to me twice this week when it's never happened ever in the past and I received a lot of yelling players and it's made me rethink my decision. I went back to IFAB rules to where it explains a handling offense:
"It is an offence if a player:
deliberately touches the ball with their hand/arm, for example moving the hand/arm towards the ball
touches the ball with their hand/arm when it has made their body unnaturally bigger. A player is considered to have made their body unnaturally bigger when the position of their hand/arm is not a consequence of, or justifiable by, the player’s body movement for that specific situation. By having their hand/arm in such a position, the player takes a risk of their hand/arm being hit by the ball and being penalised
scores in the opponents’ goal:
directly from their hand/arm, even if accidental, including by the goalkeeper
immediately after the ball has touched their hand/arm, even if accidental"
In both instances, players from both teams were running for the ball and in both instances one trips during the run in and when falling their hand grazes the ball. To me they had no option in where to place their hand falling. Their body language in the fall was natural and their hands landed close to their body in attempts to catch themselves. Kids and some parents yell hand, but I say no. They are on the ground, and don't try reaching for the ball, only trying to get up and their opponent takes possession of the ball. I talked to one of my older refs that was watching from the sidelines and he was like "refereeing is an art, not a science. You call what you think is correct. Now what if that happened in the penalty area, though? Would your call be different?" And I said depends. If by touching the ball resulted in them or a teammate directly scoring, I'd call it. If it resulted in no advantage, and the defending team got possession and got it out, I don't think I would have. But would love to get more opinions on this. Thanks!