I think that a sin bin could be introduced into football, not necessarily for every yellow card, but for a mid way house between yellow card and red card.

Think about how often ref's hold back from giving a second yellow card currently when if the player didn't have a yellow card already he would be given him one this time.
Well if the ref had the choice of putting the player off the pitch for 10 minutes instead it might mean persistent offenders are punished.

Surely most of you would agree that red cards often ruin matches as a spectacle.
Think about the much anticipated Champions League Final two years ago.

Surely it would have been better to put Lehman off the pitch for a period of time and reduce Arsenal to 10 men for 10 or 15 minutes instead of permanently.

I think most current straight red cards should be sin binnings, with some of them like violent conduct and really bad tackles should still be straight red cards. Just downgrade most of them to keep the game alive as a contest.

Are you drunk already?

Its only mid afternoon when you posted this!

As a real life referee, I have to respond to this.

This idea is NOT GOOD. A direct red card is not given for a minor foul. Some very bad things have to happen on a pitch before any referee will give a red card.

The idea about a time penalty has been introduced by the Dutch FA regarding yellow cards. For minor fouls, such as throwing/kicking a ball away and leaving the pitch without permission of the referee, a time penalty may be given in the lower leagues reserves. The penalty is 5 minutes and the player cannot be substituted during his penalty.

Come on a sin bin for too much back chat to the ref would be a good thing and really put Chelsea up the creek.

Marc, do you not agree that refs often hold back on awarding a yellow card to a player that already has one because they don't want to send a player off for back chat, time wasting or a silly shirt pull 50 yards out?

As for my sobriety, I had not had a drop at that stage of the afternoon. I firmly believe that changes need to be made to football. The players have no respect for the officials, the officials don't help themselves by being error prone.

Exhibit A on all counts, todays match between Liverpool and Chelsea.

That is true - "players have no respect for the officials"

In other sports, the ref is respected, but not in football it seems.

Generally, I'd say linesman should act more like their new title of 'referee assistants' and help out the ref with tricky decisions.

Sin Bin idea? Would slow up the game, so I am not in favour.

Where's the slow down. The player gets off the pitch, if he doesn't he gets sent off.
Players take ages to leave the pitch often for a red card as it is.

I really hate this argument that "it will slow the game down". This argument is used to talk down every innovation suggestion in football.

It all depends on the match and the player. I will explain it below.

The great soccer game has 17 hard rules, with additions and alterations on each of them. The referee is obliged to play a match according those rules. Every referee in Holland learns another rule, rule number 18 (the unwritten one)--> your own interpertation of the rules.

That gives us a bit of tweaking. Game flow is very important with this unwritten rule. I for one, had a match where the home team was 3-0 up with only 3 minutes to go and the striker of the home team was going for goal with a defender next to him trying to stop him. The goallie got out of his goal also trying to stop the striker. The striker lobs the ball, that unfortunately reaches the arm of the goallie (that went up to make him bigger), who was already out of his box.

The rules state that a direct free kick has to be awarded to the attacking side and the goallie has to be send off. I only gave a direct free kick and no cards. This because the home team was winning already, the match was a good one (No hard fouls or bad behaviour from both of the teams) and I felt that nobody was giving me a hard time if i choose to let the goallie stay because of the flow of the game.

Had the goallie been a pain in the ass the whole match and the match itself was a tough one, the red card was given.


If you prefer to lead matches by the rules, you end up with a lot of cards each match. The best example is the World Cup '06 Portugal - Holland:
Cautions:
# VAN BOMMEL Mark (NED) 2,
# BOULAHROUZ Khalid (NED) 7,
# MANICHE (POR) 20,
# COSTINHA (POR) 31,
# COSTINHA (POR) 46+,
# PETIT (POR) 50,
# VAN BRONCKHORST Giovanni (NED) 59,
# LUIS FIGO (POR) 60,
# BOULAHROUZ Khalid (NED) 63,
# DECO (POR) 73,
# SNEIJDER Wesley (NED) 73,
# VAN DER VAART Rafael (NED) 74,
# RICARDO (POR) 76,
# NUNO VALENTE (POR) 76,
# DECO (POR) 78,
# VAN BRONCKHORST Giovanni (NED) 95

Send off because off 2 yellow cards:
* COSTINHA (POR) 46+ 2Y,
* BOULAHROUZ Khalid (NED) 63 2Y,
* DECO (POR) 78 2Y,
* VAN BRONCKHORST Giovanni (NED) 95 2Y

Result is 16 yellow cards. Is this what we want every match??