Football’s lawmakers are set to unveil how trials for sin-bins and other measures to improve player behaviour will work later on Friday.
Here the PA news agency takes a closer look.
What is happening?
However, during the initial trial phase, top-level competitions will not be involved. This is to avoid confusion among players – for instance if their domestic league ran a trial but a continental competition they were involved in at the same time did not. It is not precisely clear what level the new protocols will be stress-tested at initially.
What’s this about blue cards?
The introduction of sin-bins and blue cards, should it reach the top level, would be one of the biggest developments in discipline in the game’s history, following on from the introduction of red and yellow cards at the 1970 World Cup in Mexico.
What other measures are the IFAB looking at?
Another trial will look at a new approach to how long goalkeepers can handle the ball, and how play should restart when they hold on too long. Currently goalkeepers can hold on for six seconds and anything over that is supposed to be penalised with an indirect free-kick, but lawmakers are concerned this is not being properly enforced.