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On Thursday 8th February 2024, the International Football Association Board (IFAB) was intrigued to introduce a new law that includes the use of a blue card or sin-bin rule in the professional football sport. But since the talks about proposing the new regulation have emerged, it is facing severe criticisms from veteran referees, and managers.
One such constructive disagreement has been shared by former Premier League referee Mark Halsey, who told The Sun, “ The idea to introduce blue cards into football is nonsense. Trials in amateur and youth games in both England and Wales saw referees have the power to send players off the pitch for 10 minutes for dissent or denying a promising attack."
Halsey also claimed that the use of blue cards wouldn't make any difference when yellow cards are already there in the game and also called out officials to manage the game "properly" to avoid the use of the new cards. He added, "Yellow cards are already used as a warning to players that if they persist with misconduct then further punishment will follow. So what's the difference? We don't need blue cards if officials manage the game properly in its current form. I never showed many yellow cards for dissent throughout my career because one of the main jobs of a referee is to have control and man-manage the players on the pitch."
Blue Card Will Destroy Football: Ange Postecoglou
Apart from Halsey, Tottenham Hotspur manager Ange Postecoglou also criticized the decision to introduce the blue card as he believed that this change could destroy football. The 58-year-old manager stated, “A team reduced to 10 players for 10 minutes, you know what that will do to our football? It will destroy it!
“You are going to have a team that is going to spend its time on the ground, trying to waste time for 10 minutes while waiting for their sent-off player to return to the field. Every other sport is trying to speed up the game. And all we’re trying to do is go in the other direction for some incomprehensible reason.”
