According to reports, the International Football Association Board (IFAB) will announce the introduction of a new blue card on Friday as part of trials of sin bins in professional football.
News of the blue cards was first reported by The Telegraph.
Sin-bins have been used at grassroots level for dissent but their use could be extended to cynical fouls as part of a trial. A player would spend 10 minutes in the technical area after being given a blue card by a referee. It is not yet clear when the trial will start and which competitions it will involve.
Football’s world governing body Fifa said, “reports of the so-called ‘blue card’ at elite levels of football are incorrect and premature.”
It added: “Any such trials, if implemented, should be limited to testing in a responsible manner at lower levels, a position that Fifa intends to reiterate when this agenda item is discussed at the Ifab AGM [annual general meeting] on 1 March.”
IFAB (International Football Association Board) is scheduled to hold its annual meeting at Loch Lomond in Scotland in March and sin-bin trials at higher levels of the game are listed as a topic for discussion in the agenda.
Blue cards for tactical fouls
Sin bins have already had a successful implementation in the lower levels of football since 2019-20, with players ordered to leave the field for 10 minutes if they show disrespect to an official.
Sin-bins were piloted in 2018-19 In England, with the Football Association reporting a 38% total reduction in dissent across 31 leagues.
The new trial for higher-level football, which is expected to last at least 12 months, will include situations where a player deliberately takes out an opponent in an attacking situation when a red card isn’t warranted.
The rule change was then implemented up to step five of the National League system and tier three and below in women’s football.
“I think [there is] frustration for fans watching games when they see a promising counter-attack that’s ruined by that [a tactical foul],” FA chief executive Mark Bullingham previously said.
For now, the fans won’t be seeing the blue card in top-level competitions like the Premier League, LaLiga, the UEFA Champions League, Euro 2024, or the Copa America, however. The trial over the course of next season won’t be permitted at the very top level, and it would be 2026-27 at the earliest before it could enter the Laws of the Game.
Sherjeel Malik is the editor at FanHaat with a writing experience in multiple sports. He oversees the editorial and content coverage at FanHaat and writes often around combat sports, football and other marquee sports. A professional highlight of his career was when WWE’s Paul Heyman shared one of his articles on his social media.
Apart from writing, editing and watching sports, he likes to indulge in reading fiction, watching war documentaries and is a fan of Liverpool FC
