Further details surrounding the potential introduction of blue cards into football have been revealed.
Football fans and pundits were left baffled by the news on Thursday that the new card would be trialled to sin-bin players guilty of minor offences for ten minutes – with raged supporters claiming the new rule change would ruin the game.
An introduction of the card would be the first new card in football in more than half a century, with yellow and red cards being introduced in 1970 and running to the present day.
New details have raised further questions, however, with it initially unclear where goalkeepers and managers stood with the sin-bin idea. According to The Telegraph, however, those queries have now been answered.
More details have emerged regarding the potential use of blues cards by referees in football
Proposed plans were potentially being set to be tested in FA Cup matches from next season
Reports suggest the rules will apply all the same to goalkeepers, with outfielders having to go in goal unless a substitution is made
The protocols are no different when it comes to goalkeepers, the report claims, with shot stoppers to be sin-binned the same as outfield players. meaning outfielders may have to go in goal.
A substitute could still be made to bring a goalkeeper on, though that would result in the sin-binned goalkeeper coming back on and two goalkeepers being on the field. One could then only be removed via another substitution.
If all the substitutions had been made, an outfield player would have to go in goal for the 10-minue period, then head back outfield when the goalkeeper returned.
Blue cards, meanwhile, will not apply to managers and coaches, with the yellow and red card system only staying in place.
There is uncertainty, however, around the role VAR will play in the inclusion of blue cards, with trials no to be initially held in top-tier competition.
Nor do the protocols, reportedly, explain what would happen in the events of mass confrontations between groups of players and match officials.
In good news for the Premier League managers and fans who have opposed he idea, proposals from the International Football Association Board (IFAB) have now been put on the back-burner following the growing opposition to the the idea – including from some of the biggest power-makers in the game, according to The Telegraph.
Mail Sport reported last week how supporters had been up in arms over the idea, with some saying the game was ‘finished’ – while pundits like Paul Merson claimed it would make football ‘boring’.
It is also unclear how potential rules around players surrounding referees will be employed
Tottenham manager Ange Postecoglou has led the revolt against the calls, saying the move would ‘destroy’ the game
Managers, meanwhile, are not set to be impacted by the rules, with yellow and red cards staying in place
The latest report claims that unrest over the decision was summed up by a statement from FIFA, which confirmed sin-bin trials would not include top-tier competitions.
‘Any such trials, if implemented, should be limited to testing in a responsible manner at lower levels,’ it read.
It was initially reported that blue cards were set to be trailed in FA Cup matches from next season.
