Jack Grealish ruling in FA Cup final further proves absurdity of handball

A s it turned out, it didn’t affect the destination of the FA Cup or deny Manchester City a chance at the treble, but it might have done. Manchester United had created very little when suddenly VAR gave them a penalty for something almost nobody appealed. Assuredly, under the laws, as they are now interpreted, the decision was correct. Jack Grealish’s hand was raised almost to shoulder height as Aaron Wan-Bissaka’s header struck it, and that these days is an offence. But really, why should it be?

Why should games be decided not by skill or heart, by organisation or improvisation, but by 75% chances of a goal handed out because of random bounces and bobbles? Grealish was not cheating. He did not seek to gain an advantage. He just jumped and, in twisting to see where the ball went, his arm went out to balance him. This wasn’t a Peter Schmeichel-style star jump, spreading himself to make a block; it was just a man jumping, his arms doing what arms do when somebody jumps.

This is not just an issue of the Cup final, but these big one-off games do draw the focus. This is a time to reiterate that this is ludicrous. It’s as though with the power of VAR to examine what would usually exist beyond the cognitive powers of a referee that the International Football Association Board (Ifab) has decided to ask not whether anybody has deliberately tried to gain an illicit advantage but whether anything has happened for which a penalty could be given. The result is a wilfully and illogically cruel and unfair environment; it’s as though somebody put Theresa May in charge of handball.

The English interpretation is less stringent than in Europe. Take the second leg of City’s Champions League quarter-final against Bayern Munich in which