Inside the SPFL handball debate as SPFL manager, former player and referee have their say

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Pep Guardiola admits he doesn’t understand it so what chance the rest of us getting our head around modern football’s most antagonising law - handball?Natural silhouettes, reflex motions and below the t-shirt line are all modern day reference points for a rule that used to be a black and white case of deliberate or accidental.

And now, with the introduction of VAR to the top flight of Scottish football, the controversy over decisions has only been magnified.In the 12 weeks since video refs were introduced to our game there’s been no end of friction over handball penalty awards and non-awards.

Celtic’s Alexandro Bernabei and Aberdeen’s Connor Barron were two early victims of VAR controversy after inadvertently getting a paw on the baw in their own box.

But since the World Cup our officials seem to have taken a more lenient view of what is indeed an illegal use of the hand or arm.That, of course, has led to no end of whataboutery among punters, not least after Rangers defender Connor Goldson was deemed not to have committed a foul when the ball ricocheted off his hand in the recent Old Firm draw without punishment.But if Manchester City boss Guardiola doesn’t even know what the rule is - as he stated after his side’s Champions League draw with Copenhagen earlier this season - then what chance the rest of us?The SFA’s Professional Game Board are expected to put handball on the agenda at their next meeting, inviting clubs to voice their concerns and ideas which can then be fed on to the International Football Association Board (IFAB), the body which writes the game’s laws.Record Sport spoke to a former referee as well as a current manager and recently retired player to get three different viewpoints on the most contentious