A new ‘blue card’ will be introduced as part of the 10-minute sin bin trials in football.
The International Football Association Board (IFAB) will publish the detailed protocols on Friday as football tries to clamp down on abuse towards match officials and cynical fouls.
The blue cards will form part of the trial involving sin bins and aims to give greater protection to referees and could be tested by the Football Association (FA) in next year’s men’s and women’s FA Cups.
The Athletic understands, however, that they will not be brought in for next season’s Premier League.
Sin bins for dissent are already in place across amateur and youth football in England and Wales but referees have been using yellow, rather than blue, cards. IFAB first agreed in November to test it higher up the football pyramid.
IFAB is set to green light the trial at more senior levels of the game at their next annual general meeting in Loch Lomond, Scotland, on March 2.
Other items on that agenda include trials of ‘cooling-off periods’ after flare ups between players, punishing time-wasting goalkeepers by awarding a corner kick and only allowing a team’s captain to approach the referee.
IFAB is made up of the four UK associations, which have one vote each, and FIFA, which has four.
Any…
 will publish the detailed protocols on Friday as football tries to clamp down on abuse towards match officials and cynical fouls. The blue cards will form part of the trial involving sin bins and aims to give greater protection to referees and could be tested by the Football Association (FA) in next year’s men’s and women’s FA Cups. The Athletic understands, however, that they will not be brought in for next season’s...){kind=link}