Why was Arsenal not penalized with a penalty despite Saka's obvious handball?

In the first half of the Champions League final, Bukayo Saka (Arsenal) clearly handled the ball inside the box, but the referee didn't give PSG a penalty. What was the reason?

Saka handled the ball in the penalty area but Arsenal were not penalized with a spot kick

The main reason this incident was not a penalty is that the current IFAB handball law contains a very important exception:

If a player plays the ball with a legitimate part of the body (foot, head, torso, etc.) and then the ball bounces onto his own hand/arm as a natural consequence, it is generally not considered a handball offense.

What about Bukayo Saka's situation? The midfielder attempted to clear the ball in the box. He either missed the ball or only touched it very slightly with his foot. The ball hit the ground and then bounced onto Saka's hand from extremely close range. His hand was not actively moving towards the ball to block it. Saka also did not intentionally use his hand to prevent a goal-scoring opportunity.

Therefore, the referee judged this as a ball that bounced off Saka's own playing action, rather than a deliberate handball or a case where the arm made his body "unnaturally bigger". According to the current interpretation of Law 12, such situations are typically not penalized.

What puzzles many people is that in the Champions League, there have been numerous penalties given for balls bouncing from a player's foot onto their hand. However, UEFA and VAR officials consider additional factors such as:

- Whether the hand is in an unnatural position.

- Whether the player is clearly increasing the size of their body.

- The distance from which the ball bounces onto the hand.

- Whether there is a deliberate movement of the hand towards the ball to block it.

In Saka's case, the referees apparently considered it a "ball-to-hand" situation following a natural attempt to play the ball, so there was insufficient grounds to award PSG a penalty.

In short: the ball bounced onto Saka's hand from his own very short-range clearance, with no sign of intentional hand use or unnatural body enlargement, so the referee did not deem it a handball offense warranting a penalty.