Blue cards and Sin Bins

More tinkering around the edges which will cause more problems than it solves I suspect. Not a fan personally.

I can understand that view.  But times change, the game moves on. Players antics evolve, not always for the best. Laws need to adapt accordingly. Not every change will work but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t give it a try.  Then If it don’t, bin it, no pun intended.  People ridiculed the use of chalk lines to mark 10 yards. Now it’s a good part of the game. That too was tinkering.  The juries still out on VAR.

But, for example,I am definitely not a fan of players constantly in the ear of the referee (managers too for that matter) or the evolvement of what we now sanitise as game management. Or constantly trying to steal yardage at free kicks and throws. Stuff that rarely unless a last resort ends up with a card.  Let’s call it as it is - sometimes cheating. Trying to gain unfair advantage.

So if something can eradicate all this rubbish, it has to be worth a try.

Does VAR create more controversy?  Maybe.  Largely due to the pundits.  But referees make mistakes, no criticism as I’m an ex, low-level, referee.  Anything that helps reduce it has to be good.  

Case in point, the semi of the African nations cup.  I was watching live and convinced an extra time challenge was a penalty.  The referee didn’t give it. Didn’t actually give anything assuming a fair challenge.  Punditry in overdrive.  VAR then proved two things.  The first it was a foul, red card duly administered and the second was the initial contact was outside the box so no penalty.  Had VAR not been used that incident in the near last minutes of extra time would have been dissected for ever.

VAR when used correctly can be good so long as the referee remains the sole decision maker using whatever tools available to come to the right decision.

More reds and yellows?  Interesting view.  I’d like to understand why you feel that is the right way to go.

Refs have enough problems during the match,no need for more making it difficult on a single judgement.

We do know that as a fact.  He didn't give it allowing play to continue until alerted, I don’t know how or by whom.  So no need for assumptions.  Two situations that would have gone unpunished had VAR not been used.

As for referees being more assertive.  I personally don’t know the answer to that.  What I do know is that every decision is shown in slow motion with pundits praising or criticising every decision, sometimes ironically both (even they don’t always agree having viewed incidents endlessly). A referee has a split second to decide, and it ain’t easy.  An example, a wise old referee told us during our training to never have the whistle near the mouth.  If it’s by your side it gives you an extra half a second to think before deciding to blow (or not). That is pressure in big games. Even at the level I refereed emotions ran high. VAR is there to provide a referee with the same opportunity as the pundits, a second look. Decisions that have major outcomes.  Can that be wrong?

You make some valid observations about cards.

We can't possibly know how he would've reffed the game without VAR. It's very likely the ref doesn't either. We don't know if he doesn't make a decision when he otherwise would've because he knows VAR will pull it back if need be. All we know is how he reffed the game with VAR because that's what happened.


I love learning stuff like this, thanks 🙏

The blue card is already in youth football and I had a player shown it and he had 8 mins in the sin bin. You can't sub them and your down to 10 for that period of time. It didn't affect us as such as we reorganised to cover for it.

I've seen the media back lash and the only reason it will be a problem is Premier players are going to be blue carded all the time. I'm fed up watching them telling the ref to f off as all that does is give kids permission to do the same. Trouble is the game is back to front, as they bring these laws into youth football which is fine, but you need to stop the behaviour in the pro teams and the kids will follow suit. They just copy what they see on the TV. Start at the top and work it down, you'll soon see a change in attitudes.

I see Merson was quite vocal in his opposition and I feel that outburst was due as he knows what's coming and you'll be down to 8v11 or something like that and as a spectacle it will be game over.

If a keeper gets sin binned an on field player goes in goal, when the time is up the keeper rejoins as an outfield player and it is only after the next stoppage can they go back in goal.

The only rationale I can see for a sin bin is when a foul causes a player to leave the field temporarily. To be down to 10 men because of the other side's conduct isn't rational - the player who committed the foul should be taken off for so long as the injured player is off the field.

I believe they have already been trialing this in non league football for a while now