UEFA begs FIFA to change ‘unfair’ handball laws

UEFA have pleaded with Fifa to change the “unfair” handball laws – after another night of VAR controversy.

Chelsea’s second penalty in their 3-0 Champions League win over Rennes left the French side shocked by both the VAR spot-kick award and the second yellow card for defender Dalbert Henrique.

BT pundit Rio Ferdinand slammed German referee Felix Swayer for an “absolute disgrace” of a decision, with Timo Werner slotting home his second penalty of the night.

And now Uefa President Aleksander Ceferin has stepped into the ongoing rows over the handball Laws by urging Fifa boss Gianni Infantino to intervene.

In a letter to Zurich, Ceferin said: “The attempt to strictly define the cases where handling the ball is an offense has resulted in many unfair decisions which have been met with growing frustration and discomfort by the football community.”

Despite being the wealthiest and most powerful of Fifa’s Confederations, Uefa has NO place on the Law-making International FA Board, made up of the four Home Nations and four representatives of the world governing body.

The latest Laws, agreed by IFAB in Belfast in March, came into effect on June 1.

Infantino had championed the introduction of the “tee-shirt line” which means the shoulder is no longer considered part of the arm.

But IFAB, backed by Fifa refs’ chief Pierluigi Collina, guides that handling offences when the body is made ‘unnaturally bigger’, must be punished.

Although the Premier League was given dispensation to apply less strict criteria after a controversial start to the season, Uefa is sticking more firmly to the official guidelines.