Mike Riley was busy briefing on Wednesday to explain a rule that just about everyone understood until referees got involved.
There were slides and footage, and clarification and caveats, but each season nobody in football ever gets to grip with the crux of it: why does it always need carnage before common sense can find space at the table?
Why does the sport need several weeks of travesty and injustice before a compromise is found that is even a nodding acquaintance with fairness?
Mike Riley's explanation of handball made as much sense as anything we've heard this season
Riley did his best to explain why Eric Dier, who wasn't even facing the ball when he gave away a penalty, was fairly penalised, while Joel Ward, who was looking at it when he handled to the extent he tried to get out of the way, was not.