The Handball Rule in Football Explained

Rules · By Md Emran Hossain · Updated 23 October 2026 · 3 min read

Handball decisions trigger heated debates every weekend. The rule has been rewritten several times since 2019, and the current wording focuses on whether a player deliberately handled the ball or made their body unnaturally bigger. Here is what the Laws of the Game say today.

Where does the arm start?

For handball, the boundary between the shoulder and the arm is the bottom of the armpit. A ball that hits the shoulder above that line is not handball. The same boundary is used for offside.

It is an offence when a player:

• deliberately touches the ball with the hand or arm, for example by moving the hand towards the ball;
• touches the ball with a hand or arm that has made the body unnaturally bigger. A position is unnatural when it is not a consequence of, or justifiable by, the player's body movement in that situation. Arms held out wide or above the shoulder are usually treated as making the body bigger;
• scores directly into the opponents' goal with the hand or arm, even accidentally (this includes the goalkeeper);
• scores immediately after the ball has touched their own hand or arm, even accidentally.

It is usually not an offence when:

• the ball touches the hand or arm directly from the player's own head or body, including the foot;
• the ball comes off the head, body or foot of another player who is close by;
• the hand or arm is close to the body and does not make it unnaturally bigger;
• a player falls and the hand or arm is between the body and the ground to support the body, but not extended sideways or upwards.

Accidental handball by a team-mate

Since 2021, an accidental handball by a team-mate in the build-up to a goal is no longer an offence. Only the goalscorer is penalised for an accidental touch, and only if the goal follows immediately. If the ball touches an attacker's arm accidentally and the move continues through several passes before another player scores, the goal stands.

The goalkeeper

Goalkeepers may handle the ball inside their own penalty area. They commit an offence if they:

• handle the ball outside their penalty area (treated like any other player);
• handle a ball deliberately kicked to them by a team-mate (the back-pass rule);
• handle a ball received directly from a team-mate's throw-in;
• touch the ball again with the hands after releasing it and before another player touches it.

These goalkeeper offences inside the penalty area are punished with an indirect free kick, not a penalty.

Punishment

A handball offence results in a direct free kick, or a penalty if it happens inside the offender's own penalty area. A yellow card is shown if the handball stops a promising attack or is an attempt to score. A red card is shown for deliberately handling the ball to deny an obvious goal or goal-scoring opportunity. See our guide to yellow and red cards.

Why handball calls look inconsistent

Unlike offside, handball is largely a matter of judgement: was the arm position natural for that movement? Two referees can reasonably disagree, and VAR only intervenes when the on-field decision is a clear and obvious error. That is why similar-looking incidents sometimes lead to different decisions. Read more in VAR Explained.

Quick checklist

1. Did the ball hit the arm below the armpit line?
2. Was the touch deliberate, or did the arm make the body unnaturally bigger?
3. Did the ball come straight off the player's own body or a nearby opponent?
4. If accidental, did the same player score immediately afterwards?