The interpretation of the handball rule is set to undergo another change after the referees body announced new guidance heading into the new campaign.

Officials will look to cut down on the awarding of ‘soft penalties’during the 2024-25 season by showing leniency when the ball changes direction.

Last season fans were often left confused about the handball laws amid a string of harsh penalty decisions.

Now the Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) group have responded to growing frustration, with former referee Kevin Friend giving an interview to Sky Sports to explain the new guidance. 

The 53-year-old said: ‘We saw some soft penalties last season for handball so if it’s a clear directional movement from the ball from the foot to the hand we’re not going to be penalising that.

‘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 from going into the box or into the goal.’

Friend also revealed a new interpretation into the laws surrounding holding in the penalty area.

Ahead of this campaign, referees will be told to bear in mind how far the incident is away from the ball.

PMGOL had stated that holding will be a continued area of emphasis.

Players will be penalised when holding is sustained and has a clear impact on the opponent’s opportunity to play or challenge for the ball, including non-footballing actions. 

Friend explained ‘One of the things we love about English football – the Championship, League One, League Two – is the physicality. We don’t want to take that out.

‘We understand that teams do block when the ball is coming out. There’s an element of holding. We understand there’s going to be mutual holding – we’re not going to intervene with that.

‘What we’re looking at are the clear holding offences that impact the ability of the attackers to get onto the ball.

‘If the defenders’ actions are to deliberately bring the player down by holding him, sustained, impactful, then we’re going to penalise that. The more away from the ball, the more severe it’s got to be. 

‘We saw a couple of examples last season of defending players rugby tackling attacking players 15 yards away from the ball and actions like that, non-footballing and extreme, we would look to penalise. 

‘It’s what we did last season but more of an approach of “What is the impact? What are the intentions of the defensive player? What are the actions of the attacking player?”‘ 

Referees have been briefing all league clubs ahead of the new season as they look to start afresh following a season riddled with officiating controversies.

Only two Premier League referees remain in UEFA’s Elite List, the highest tier for referees: Anthony Taylor and Michael Oliver.

And Taylor was at the centre of an officiating saga in the Euro 2024 match between France and Netherlands this summer. 

The Dutch side felt that they could, or perhaps should, have won the game after Xavi Simons beat France keeper Mike Maignan with a sweet low strike from 15 yards midway through the second half. 

One of the assistant referees immediately flagged for offside as Dutch defender Denzel Dumfries was deemed to be interfering with play. 

The match was then delayed for well over two minutes as the VAR team sought to conclude whether that was the correct decision in scenes reminiscent of various incidents throughout the Premier League season.

He and his VAR team later enraged German fans for failing to award the hosts a penalty for handball against Spain’s Marc Cucurella in their quarter-final defeat.

Taylor was viewed to have made the right call under UEFA guidance when waving away the penalty appeals.