A blue card is set to be introduced in football making it the first new colour to be widely used in over 50 years, reported The Telegraph on Thursday.
According to the report, the groundbreaking initiative will be announced by the International Football Association Board on Friday as part of new measures that will see players withdrawn from play for 10 minutes if they commit a cynical foul or show dissent towards a match official.
The protocols will introduce a new aspect to dismissals, as players will now be sent off if they receive two blue cards in a game or a combination of a blue and a yellow.
The report continued to state that trials at an elite level could commence as soon as the summer, though top-tier competitions will be exempt from initial testing.
Consequently, FA Cup and Women’s FA Cup matches may be included in trials, with the FA reportedly considering offering next season’s competitions for testing.
Blue cards have been utilised this season during a sin-bin trial in grassroots football in Wales, with the colour chosen to clearly distinguish it from a yellow or red card.
The introduction of new cards already occurred on a smaller scale on the continent, with Portugal recently implementing a new measure to acknowledge good sportsmanship.
FIFA referees’ chief Pierluigi Collina backed the idea of sin bins, saying: “The idea is to start working on this as soon as possible to provide those who would be involved in the trial a protocol to be used. The idea is to get it soon.
“The trial was very successful in grassroots competitions. Now we are talking of a higher level, very probably professional or even high professional football.’
Football Association chief executive Mark Bullingham confirmed their interest in using sin bins back in November.
“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,” he said.
In contrast, UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin expressed his opposition to the move, and sin-bins will not be utilised at this summer’s European Championship or next season’s Champions League.
