Blue cards in football? Lawmakers set to introduce trials for 10-minute sin bins

IFAB set to introduce blue cards for football sin bins; referees will have the power to send players off for 10 minutes for dissent or cynical fouls; the FA will consider trialing sin bins in the FA Cup and Women's FA Cup next season

The International Football Association Board [IFAB] will publish the detailed protocols for sin-bin trials in professional football on Friday.

The IFAB is expected to include a provision for blue cards.

In the trials, referees will have the power to send players off for 10 minutes for dissent or cynical fouls.

Two blue cards would result in the player's dismissal for the rest of the match, as would a blue and a yellow card.

IFAB is set to give the go ahead for the extended sin-bin trials in senior levels of the game at its annual meeting in March.

There have already been trials in amateur and youth football in both England and Wales and the sport's lawmaking body agreed in November last year that they should be implemented at higher levels of football.

Board members had also supported a proposed trial whereby only the team captain may approach the referee in certain major game situations.

However, FIFA called blue cards in elite football "premature" and said "any trials, if implemented, should be limited to testing in a responsible manner at lower levels".

However, sin bins will not be used at either this summer's European championship in Germany, or in next season's Uefa Champions League after Uefa president Aleksander Ceferin revealed in January that he was completely opposed to them, saying: "It's not football anymore."

One example given of a blue card during Thursday's IFAB meeting was from the Euro 2020 final Italy centre-back Giorgio Chiellini's shirt pull on England forward Bukayo Saka which only resulted in a yellow card.

'Sin bins have worked very, very well in the grassroots of the game'

The IFAB approved proposed trials whereby only the team captain may approach the referee and for sin bins to be tested at a higher level back in November.

Those proposals were then supported at the IFAB's Annual Business Meeting (ABM) in London which shaped the agenda for the organization's annual general meeting, which will be held on March 2 in Glasgow, where any proposed changes to the laws of the game will be considered for approval.

Board member Mark Bullingham, the chief executive of the Football Association, said: "When we were looking at sin bins - protocol clearly has to be developed - the areas we were looking at were dissent, where it's worked very, very well in the grassroots game in England.

"We've also spoken about other areas, particularly tactical fouls.

"I think frustration for fans watching games when they see a promising counter-attack that's ruined by that and the question of whether a yellow card is sufficient for that has led to us looking at whether that should be involved in the protocol as well.

"The starting point was looking at player behavior and dissent - we're then looking at whether we should extend it into other areas, such as tactical fouls, as well."

Southgate: If discipline is an issue, send players off

England manager Gareth Southgate on new IFAB proposals:

"I would have said the game has worked quite well for a long time. I know, I suppose we always have to modernise with certain things.

"But, yeah, I'd have to really understand how that was going to work before I could give a really strong view.

"If discipline's bad you send players off! That's quite simple really."

IFAB keen to improve player behavior

"One of the main topics we are looking into at the moment is improved participant behavior on and around the field of play," "We want to find a way to improve the behavior of all participants because of the retention of referees, and motivating referees to participate in the game and become referees is decreasing.

"We need to find a way of making sure there are enough referees, that they are being respected and that they can work properly on the field of play."

Player behaviour, technology and player welfare are three of the main topics on the International Football Association Board agenda for the future.

Player behaviour was a theme throughout last season with 15 of the 20 Premier League clubs fined at least once for
failing to control their players.

Brud went on to explain the sin bin was on of the ideas that could help with player behaviour.

"There are a number of ideas on the table in relation to player behavior," he said. "The sin bin is certainly one of them.