Reactions have continued to trail the decision of the International Football Association Board, IFAB, to introduce football blue cards and sin bins.
The red card and yellow card monopoly in football is definitely set to be broken with the introduction of the controversial yet novelty new card.
Following approval by the International Football Association Board (IFAB), national FAs have been given the leeway to go ahead and test the new innovation to promote sportsmanship and fair play in the game.
The English FA are reportedly set to test the blue cards in Women’s FA Cup and Men’s FA Cup from next year with other Football Associations set to test-run the controversial new card.
What is the blue card and what are they meant for?
Like red cards and yellow cards, the blue card is a disciplinary tool in football that was introduced to curb malicious tackles and promote fair play in the game. It will complement the red card and yellow card. While serving to complement red and yellow cards, blue cards can perfectly be understood with the concept of sin bins.
What are sin bins?
Sin bins was first introduced in ice hockey – a popular combative sport played with hockey by two opposing teams. It denotes a secluded area away from the arena where offending players can be temporarily kept out of the game as punishment.
IFAB, an auxiliary arm of FIFA, responsible for articulating and revising the rules of the game, approved sin bins to be used in football. When a player is issued with a blue card, he will be sent to the sin bin. He will remain there for some minutes before being allowed back into the game.
What is the difference between a yellow card, a red card, and a blue card?
All three cards are used as disciplinary tools in football to promote fair play and a more decent game. While the yellow card serves as a warning to players for indiscipline which could range from bad tackles, confronting opponents or match officials, or outrightly breaking the game’s extant rules, the red card dismisses the player from the game and keeps him suspended from the next match for extreme cases of indiscipline.
The blue card comes in between the red and yellow cards. If a player is adjudged to have maliciously tackled his opponent or confronted a match official, the referee can decide to issue him a blue card.
When brandished with a blue card, the player in question will be sent to the sin bin. He will remain there for 10 minutes before coming back to take part in the game.
Reactions to football blue cards and sin bins
Just like the VAR and other football innovations, football blue cards and ’10-minute sin bins’ have suffered a heavy backlash from football analysts and fans alike.
The blue card is expected to tackle critical misdemeanors in the game – ‘cynical fouls and dissent.’ The contentions are that it will grant more power to the referees while making the game more boring. Some critics have blasted the innovation as a ploy by the rich to further colonize and strip it of its authenticity.
According to some analysts temporarily reducing a team to 10 men through sin bins will rob some teams of their competitive edge while giving an advantage to opponents. It could also make for a drab and dour encounter with less action as two blue cards could create a numb out of an erstwhile solid team
What is the blue card in football?
The blue card is a new football card like the red and yellow card that will temporarily suspend a player from action for 10 minutes for a cynical foul or dissent.
What is sin bins in football?
Sin bins in football are secluded zones away from the field where erring players are suspended from action for 10 minutes before being allowed to return.
What color is the sin bin card?
The colour of the sin bin card in football is blue. It is a new card different from the red, yellow, and white cards in football.
