Referee issuing a yellow card in a football game

Sophia Crothall

On 9 February 2024, the International Football Association Board (IFAB) announced they would publish detailed protocols for the trials of the blue card in football. 

In the trials, the blue card would allow a referee to send players off for ten minutes. This could be for dissent or cynical fouls. 

Two blue cards would result in a dismissal for the rest of the match, as would a blue and yellow card. 

What Are The Current Rules?

There are currently only two types of cards used within a football game: a yellow card and a red card.

A yellow card is a caution issued by the referee for non-supporting behaviour, dissent, time-wasting or persistent infringements of the rules. Two yellow cards for a player within the same match results in a red card.

A red card signifies a player’s dismissal from the match. This is issued for serious offences, violent conduct, dangerous play and any action that brings the game into disrepute. For teams, this also means the player cannot be replaced, leaving them a player short for the remainder of the game. 

How Has FIFA Responded?

Trials have already taken place in amateur and youth football across England and Wales. In November 2023, the sport’s lawmaking body agreed they should be implemented at higher levels of football.

They also supported a proposed trial where only the team captain may approach the referee in major game situations. 

FIFA has shared disapproval of the proposed introduction. They called the reports premature, saying: “Any such trials should be limited to testing in a responsible manner at low levels.”

According to The Times, the Football Association will also consider trialling sin bins in the FA Cup and Women’s FA Cup next season.

The proposals have not met with support from Uefa who will not roll out sin-bins to either this summer’s men’s European Championship or the Champions League.

Reactions To The Blue Card

UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin shared that he was completely opposed to the use of sin bins, saying “it’s not football anymore.” 

Mark Bullingham, chief executive of the Football Association, said: “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.

“We’ve also spoken about other areas, particularly tactical fouls.

“I think frustration for fans watching games when they see a promising counter-attack that’s ruined by that and the question of whether a yellow card is sufficient for that has led to us looking at whether that should be involved in the protocol as well.

“The starting point was looking at player behaviour and dissent — we’re then looking at whether we should extend it into other areas, such as tactical fouls, as well.”

Commenting on the proposed blue card, England manager Gareth Southgate shared: “I would have said the game has worked quite well for a long time. I know, I suppose we always have to modernise with certain things.

“But, yeah, I’d have to really understand how that was going to work before I could give a really strong view. 

“If discipline’s bad you send players off! That’s quite simple really.”

Will The Blue Card Introduction Go Ahead? 

Since the announcement, plans to introduce the blue card have been ‘thrown into doubt’ following backlash against the proposals. 

Football fans and pundits were said to be ‘baffled’ by the news. The IFAB have instead put the plans on the back-burner following the growing opposition to the idea. 

With football lawmakers unconvinced, the future of the blue card will likely be debated at IFAB’s next annual general meeting in March. 

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Featured image courtesy of BorgMattison on Pixabay. No changes were made to this image. Image licence found here.

Sophia is studying for a masters in 'Cultural and Creative Industries' at Cardiff University. She has key interests in F1 and Football and is looking to pursue a career in Sports Media. Sophia also runs her own sports news account @sophiacrothall_sport on Tik Tok.

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