{
  "id": "handball",
  "type": "glossary",
  "name": "Handball",
  "summary": "Handball is the Law 12 offence of touching the ball with the hand or arm: deliberately, with a hand/arm position that makes the body unnaturally bigger, or when scoring directly or immediately after a touch, even if accidental. Goalkeepers are exempt inside their own penalty area.",
  "locale": "en",
  "tags": [
    "glossary",
    "handball",
    "fouls",
    "laws-of-the-game"
  ],
  "relations": [
    {
      "rel": "governed_by",
      "target": "law-12-fouls-and-misconduct"
    }
  ],
  "questions": [
    "When is handball a foul?",
    "Is accidental handball an offence?"
  ],
  "claims": [
    {
      "id": "c1",
      "text": "It is a handball offence to deliberately touch the ball with the hand or arm (for example moving the hand or arm towards the ball) or to touch it with a hand or arm that has made the body unnaturally bigger.",
      "sources": [
        "ifab-law-12-2026-27"
      ],
      "confidence": 0.96
    },
    {
      "id": "c2",
      "text": "Accidental handball is an offence only for a scorer: it is an offence to score in the opponents' goal directly from one's own hand or arm, or immediately after the ball has touched one's own hand or arm, even if accidental. Accidental handball by a team-mate in the build-up is not, by itself, an offence in the current Laws.",
      "sources": [
        "ifab-law-12-2026-27"
      ],
      "confidence": 0.93
    },
    {
      "id": "c3",
      "text": "Goalkeepers are exempt from the handball offence inside their own penalty area.",
      "sources": [
        "ifab-law-12-2026-27"
      ],
      "confidence": 0.96
    }
  ],
  "takeaways": [],
  "faqs": [],
  "evidence_tier": "primary",
  "evidence": {
    "level": "industry_observation",
    "source_types": [
      "industry_observation"
    ]
  },
  "moat_flag": true,
  "winning_edge": "Handball wording changed in 2019, 2020 and 2021 and stale versions dominate search results; this term binds the exact 2026/27 criteria, including the scorer-only scope of the accidental clause.",
  "confidence": 0.94,
  "last_verified": "2026-08-08",
  "canonical_url": "https://futbolatlas.app/k/handball",
  "api_url": "https://futbolatlas.app/api/k/handball.json",
  "jsonld": {
    "@context": "https://schema.org",
    "name": "Handball",
    "description": "Handball is the Law 12 offence of touching the ball with the hand or arm: deliberately, with a hand/arm position that makes the body unnaturally bigger, or when scoring directly or immediately after a touch, even if accidental. Goalkeepers are exempt inside their own penalty area.",
    "url": "https://futbolatlas.app/k/handball",
    "license": "https://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-4.0.html",
    "dateModified": "2026-08-08",
    "citation": [
      {
        "@type": "CreativeWork",
        "name": "Law 12 — Fouls and Misconduct (Laws of the Game 2026/27)",
        "url": "https://www.theifab.com/laws/latest/fouls-and-misconduct/"
      }
    ],
    "@type": "DefinedTerm"
  }
}