Manchester United and England defender Harry Maguire has called on the Premier League to take a stand against ‘soft’ penalties and raise the threshold for awarding penalties.
Maguire survived a criminal case against him while playing for England against North Macedonia this week, but debutant Rico Lewis conceded a harsh penalty after a Var check in the same match.
Despite his clumsy challenge going unpunished, Maguire is concerned about the increase in penalties, which are at a record high in the Premier League over the past five years.
Penalties for handball have also increased enormously, both domestically and in the Champions League. Maguire was awarded a penalty for handball in United’s defeat to FC Copenhagen this month, but he has not been awarded a penalty in the Premier League since the start of last season.
“Penalties in the last six months, a year or so, especially in the Premier League, all over the world actually, the Champions League, they are given before everything. They are so soft,” Maguire said. “They make it so difficult for defenders to defend as it should be.
“You’ve got to be able to defend, you’ve got to be able to move your arm, you’ve got to be able to move your body, you’ve got to be able to make contact, you’ve got to be able to move your hands and get there.
“Nowadays fines are imposed for everything. Absolutely for everything. It’s such an important part of the game. I understand it’s an important part of the game: what should be a penalty, what shouldn’t be a penalty, but there are far too many soft penalties being given at the moment.”
United have conceded six penalties in all competitions this season. Since the start of last season, Brighton’s Lewis Dunk has conceded the most penalties in the Premier League, having seen five against him.
“I think the threshold for sentencing absolutely needs to change,” Maguire said. “And I think the Premier League, the biggest league in the world, should start with it. I have to come up with something because I’ve seen a number of penalties in the Premier League since the start of the season that to me are just ridiculous.
“It’s not just at my club, where I watch them every weekend, I see them being given for handball where I don’t know where boys should place their arms, minimal contact, it’s a contact sport. Starting with the biggest league in the world, the Premier League, they have to set the standard and the threshold has to be a little higher than it is now.”
‘Kane is the best striker in the world’
England have one of the best penalty takers in the world in Harry Kane, who has scored 48 goals for club and country so far in 2023, and he scored from the spot against United for Bayern Munich in the Champions League in September.
“For me he is the best striker in the world,” Maguire said. “If he’s not on the field, that’s what we do [England] miss him. He’s our captain, he’s our leader and he has been since I’ve been here. He is of course an important player, he is our goalscorer.
“I’ve always said about Harry that he’s one of the best strikers in the world and he’s proven that for eight or 10 years now, however long he’s been at Spurs. Now he’s gone to Bayern and he’s doing what he does: scoring goals, he is a great person, and also a great leader.
“I knew when he went to Germany, any club that signed him this summer, he would score goals, that’s what he does. He scores goals, he does it day in and day out in training, he’s a nightmare to play against. and can put the ball in the net from any angle.”
Maguire was not involved in United’s defeat to Bayern in Germany but could face Kane in the Champions League match at Old Trafford in December.
“He played very well when we played them and if we want to beat them at Old Trafford then keeping him quiet is an important task,” said Kane.
Maguire’s performances against Malta and North Macedonia sparked more discussion about his inclusion in Gareth Southgate’s England squad, but the 30-year-old’s only concern is what his manager, teammates, family and England fans think about him.
“Listen, playing for my country means everything, it’s a huge honor and playing for my country is such a huge privilege for me,” Maguire said. “This is what I dreamed of as a kid, so every time there’s a game I want available, I want to play every minute, start every game and help the boys.
“It’s been six successful years for me since I made my debut, also for the team, but now we just have to get over the line.
“Listen, I know I’m appreciated in the locker room. I know I am appreciated in the football world, coaches, players, the support I get from ex-players, managers and I know I am really appreciated in the football world.
“I know I am appreciated by the England fans with whom I have made many memories over the years and that is the most important thing for me.”
Sanctions are too common, but there are solutions
By Daniel Zeqiri
Does football have a penalty problem? Harry Maguire is not alone in feeling that they are awarded too generously, with the introduction of the Video Assistant Referee system bringing about a radical change in the way the subjective laws of the sport are interpreted.
Penalties are successfully converted at a rate of about 78 percent, making chances very likely in a low-scoring sport. Since the offenses punished are often minor or unintentional, such as Rico Lewis’ handball against North Macedonia, there is a feeling that the punishment does not fit the crime.
There have been 35 penalties awarded in the Premier League this season, 0.29 per match, putting the campaign on course to produce the second or third most penalties of any season since 1992-93. There have been four full seasons since Var was introduced, and three of those are in the top 10 for penalties awarded. The 2020-2021 season yielded the most with 125.
The same goes for the Champions League, where three of the four best seasons in terms of penalties awarded have occurred since 2019/20, when Var was fully operational. There were 49 penalties awarded in last season’s Champions League, compared to an all-time low of 17 in 2006-07.
A major reason for this increase is the enforcement of the handball law in the Var era, something that regularly irritates fans, players and coaches.
In the 2001–02 Premier League season, only five penalties were awarded for handball in the entire campaign. Last season the total was 24. The three seasons with the most handball penalties are the most recent three, demonstrating Var’s influence.
As Maguire discovered to his chagrin in Manchester United’s Champions League defeat in Copenhagen, officials in UEFA competitions are working towards a strict, literal interpretation of the International Football Association Board’s handball law. Last season we saw a 50 percent increase in the number of handball penalties awarded in the Champions League, the most of any campaign: 18. There have already been nine handball penalties awarded this season and we are still two games away from the end of the group stage. .
Football laws are designed to help referees make decisions at full speed on the pitch. Since intent can never truly be judged, handball incidents would come down to gut feeling. Predictably, the search for more objective definitions to assess slow-motion incidents has created problems, and the lack of uniformity between the leagues adds to the frustration.
IFAB says a handball violation occurs when a player “deliberately touches the ball with his hand/arm” or “touches the ball with his hand/arm while in a position that makes his body unnaturally larger.” This remains open to interpretation, with Premier League referees taking proximity to the ball more into account than their UEFA counterparts.
You could argue that more goals mean more entertainment, but watching the biggest matches shaped by such innocuous incidents feels unsatisfying.
What can be done? Establishing a universally accepted and easy-to-apply concept of handball seems impossible, but the law could only be enforced for goal-bound shots. This means that a player who makes himself ‘unnaturally taller’ by stopping a shot on target with his arm would be penalized, but defenders in non-threatening situations (such as Lewis or Arsenal’s William Saliba at Chelsea this season) would not do that .
Another interesting theory is to change the shape of the penalty area from a rectangle to a curved zone closer to the goal, or the addition of such an area within the penalty area. Fouls closer to the goal would be penalties, while the rest would be indirect free kicks. The aim would be to compensate penalties for truly dangerous goal chances.