Euros 2024: Germany coach demands handball rule change after Spain defeat

Germany head coach Julian Nagelsmann urged soccer chiefs to revamp the sport’s controversial handball rule, as the ruckus surrounding his team’s exit from Euro 2024 continued on Saturday.

Television programming in the host nation was filled with replays of the critical moment during Germany’s quarterfinal defeat to Spain on Friday, when a ball struck Spanish defender Marc Cucurella’s arm after a shot from Jamal Musiala.

Referee Anthony Taylor ruled that there had been no infringement, and the host nation was later eliminated by Mikel Merino’s late header in extra time.

Nagelsmann did not dispute the call’s legitimacy — though plenty of fans and TV pundits did — but insisted that the current regulations were neither fair nor easily interpreted.

“There is a rule and I hope there is no wrong decision,” Nagelsmann told reporters. “They applied the rule and it was not a penalty. I do not feel cheated. For me, the question is about making it more practical, more logical, in terms of how this handball rule is assessed.

“You look at the hand, if it is at 3 o’clock, if it is a bit higher or a bit lower. But there are people with bigger muscles than me, different movements.”

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Nagelsmann was referring to the portion of the rule that refers to a defender’s hand being in a “natural” or “unnatural” position. Cucurella was helped by the fact that his arm was close to the side of his body and that it was not extended forward. Had either of those things been the case, a spot-kick would likely have been given.

Earlier in the tournament, during Germany’s round of 16 clash, a ball flicked the hand of Denmark’s Joachim Andersen while his hand was in front of his body.

“I don’t understand why we don’t take into account what is happening with the ball,” Nagelsmann added. “If Musiala kicks it towards Stuttgart and it hits the hand, I won’t say anything. But it was going towards goal. You should look at where it is going. Is it going into the clouds or is it going in the goal? In one case it is a penalty, in the other it is not.

“The rule should be simpler. You can’t talk about intentions. You have to see where the ball is aimed. We have 50 robots that bring us our coffee so there should be an AI that calculates where the ball is going.”

The strict letter of the law is … still somewhat vague. According to FIFA’s regulations, “a player is considered to have made their body unnaturally bigger when the position of their hand/arm is not a consequence of, or justifiable by, the player’s body movement for that specific situation.”

All clear on that?

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Nagelsmann is not the only head coach left frustrated. Indeed, Denmark’s Kasper Hjulmand, on the receiving end after his team was knocked out by Germany, earlier made his thoughts clear.

“I’m so tired of the ridiculous handball rules,” Hjulmand said.

Martin Rogers is a columnist for FOX Sports. Follow him on Twitter @MRogersFOX and subscribe to the daily newsletter.