Football fans offended by possible introduction of blue card
Some fans disagree with the International Football Association Board’s (IFAB) decision to introduce a blue card which referees are to use along with the existing two.
This decision was made to reduce dissent and tactical fouls on the pitch, but many are already voicing the bad results the new card could conjure.
According to the IFAB, the blue card and the yellow card will have identical and different powers.
For example, being shown a blue card means you are disallowed from playing for ten minutes, while getting two blue cards equals a red card. Also, any number of players can be sent off the field.
The card has already been tested in Wales, and it might be used by referees during the next FA Cup next year.
IFAB chief executive Mark Bullingham said the following:
‘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.’
Though a lot of people disagree with injecting the card into the game, FIFA referees’ leader Pierluigi Collina supported the reverse.
‘The idea is to start working on this as soon as possible to provide those who would be involved in the trial a protocol to be used,’ he said. ‘The idea is to get it soon.
‘The trial was very successful in grassroots competitions. Now we are talking of a higher level, very probably professional or even high professional football.’
All fans can do might be to hope that the transformative experiment fails.