The replay clearly shows the ball touching an arm. That establishes contact, but it does not by itself settle every handball decision. The next question is which part of the law applies to the incident.
IFAB Law 12 distinguishes deliberate handling, contact when the hand or arm makes the body unnaturally bigger, and particular situations in which the scorer’s own accidental contact prevents a goal. “Accidental” is therefore not a complete answer on its own.
Follow the player and the next action
A player moving a hand towards the ball presents a different question from a ball striking an arm whose position follows naturally from that player’s movement. The referee assesses the specific action and whether the arm position is justified by it. A still photograph can remove the movement that makes this judgement understandable.
There is also a separate scoring restriction. A player cannot score directly with the hand or arm, even accidentally, or immediately after the ball has touched their own hand or arm. That rule is about the scorer’s contact, not an automatic ban on every goal following any accidental touch by any teammate.
Compare two fictional replays
In the first, the ball accidentally brushes an attacker’s arm and that same attacker immediately scores. In the second, a ball brushes one attacker’s arm before a teammate scores. The second incident still needs assessment for deliberate handling or an unnaturally bigger body; it is not automatically identical to the first merely because both replays contain an arm contact.
When watching, note who touched the ball, what their arm was doing and who scored. Then watch the sequence at normal speed before repeatedly freezing one frame. Those observations give a more useful discussion than counting the number of times commentators say “intent”.
Do not infer the disciplinary sanction from contact alone either. The offence, location and effect on the attack matter to the wider decision. For a particular match, use the competition’s applicable laws and official explanation where one is available.