In a groundbreaking development for professional football, the introduction of a blue card is poised to reshape the landscape of officiating regulations.
Reported by The Telegraph, the International Football Association Board (IFAB), the governing body overseeing the laws of the game, has greenlit the implementation of the blue card as part of trials for sin-bin enforcement, with an official announcement slated for today (February 9).
Players who display dissent toward officials or engage in cynical fouls will be promptly shown the blue card and temporarily sidelined in the sin-bin for a duration of ten minutes.
While initial testing may not encompass elite-level competitions, prospective trials could commence as early as this summer, with the Football Association (FA) contemplating offering the FA Cup and Women’s FA Cup as platforms for further experimentation in the upcoming season.
The blue card protocol will be reserved for instances where a player halts a dangerous attacking play or exhibits dissent. Accumulating two blue cards within a single match, or a combination of a blue card and a yellow card, will result in an automatic sending off.
IFAB cited an incident from the Euro 2020 final involving Giorgio Chiellini’s shirt-pulling on Bukayo Saka as an example warranting a ten-minute sin-bin penalty under the proposed regulations.
However, UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin has confirmed that sin-bins will not be introduced during the upcoming European Championship or the subsequent Champions League season, expressing reservations by remarking, “It’s not football anymore.”
Successful trials of the blue card system have already been conducted in amateur and youth football leagues across England and Wales, paving the way for its integration into the senior game.
Meanwhile, Portugal has implemented a white card system through the National Plan for Ethics in Sport, aimed at fostering a culture of fair play within football.
