Kevin Friend has revealed changes to the rules regarding handball and holding in preparation for the upcoming Premier League season.

PGMOL Select Group 2 (Championship manager) Kevin Friend has revealed the changes that officials across English football will implement in the upcoming season regarding handball and holding.

Friend, a former top-flight referee, stated that there will be a slight adjustment in the officiating of handball offences, but there will not be a crackdown on holding in the penalty area.

Friend acknowledged that there were instances of soft penalties given for handball last season, such as when Luton Town were awarded a penalty against Wolverhampton Wanderers in September 2023. While there have been no changes to the handball law itself, Friend explained that more leniency will be given to deflected instances.

Speaking to Sky Sports, Friend said, “Our approach regarding handball, there’s only a slight change and tweak into where we’re going with that. So if a player makes a shot or a cross and it hits the player’s foot and it then changes its trajectory, changes the actual direction and clearly hits the arm that might be out naturally and justifiably, we’re not going to look to penalise that as a penalty kick.”

He added, “We saw some soft penalties last season for handball. So we’re basically looking for examples where it clearly hits the arm unjustifiably, hands above the head, away from the body to deliberately block the ball coming into the box or going into goal.”

It is worth noting that a similar announcement was made before the 2019-20 Premier League season, and different leagues can advise different approaches for their officials.

Regarding holding in the penalty area, Friend stressed the importance of allowing physicality to remain in the game. However, he made it clear that instances of unilateral holding that hinder an attacker’s ability to play the ball should result in a penalty.

“It’s by no means a clampdown or anything like that,” said Friend. “It’s what we did last season, but it’s more like approaches. I think one of the things that we love about English football with the Championship, League One and League Two is the physicality. We love physical elements to the game. We don’t want to take that out.”

He continued, “What we’re looking at is the clear holding offences that impact the ability of the attacker to get onto the ball, or the clear impact on the ability of the attacker doing something with the ball. So if the defender’s actions are to deliberately bring the player down by holding him, sustained, impactful, then we’re going to penalise that whether that’s on the ball or off the ball.”

Friend also highlighted the importance of the team of officials cracking down on holding in the penalty area away from the ball. He stated that the further away from the ball, the more severe the holding offence must be. Friend cited examples from last season where defending players rugby tackled attacking players far from the ball and emphasized the need for officials to identify these incidents.

“The more away from the ball, the more severe it has got to be. We saw a couple of examples last season of defending players rugby tackling attacking players 15 yards away from where the ball was. It’s very difficult on field for the referee but again we’re empowering, encouraging the referees as a team to understand the team tactics, what players are doing, how they’re setting up and actually identifying these little areas.”