Blue cards will not be shown in football, FIFA president Gianni Infantino said this Saturday before the meeting to discuss this development. The highest representative of football respected that the IFAB, the body in charge of developing football rules, investigates innovative forms of sanction for low-level matches, but the leader ruled out that the new card, proposed a month ago to expel players temporarily for ten minutes, is used in elite football.
"Let me be clear: I'm giving a red card to the idea of blue cards," Infantino told reporters in a video posted overnight on his Instagram account. "Blue cards will not be used at the elite level." "This is an issue that does not exist for us and FIFA is completely opposed to blue cards," Infantino said at a hotel near Glasgow that will host the meeting of the IFAB panel of experts on soccer rules.
So-called sin bins, which are inspired by temporary exclusion systems in other sports, were introduced into grassroots football in the 2019-20 season to try to reduce dissent and increase fair play. The idea has been unpopular with English Premier League coaches, who believe teams will use defensive and negative tactics if a player is sent off for 10 minutes.
The IFAB panel is made up of officials from FIFA and the four British football federations. FIFA has four votes and the federations of England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales have one each. Six votes are needed for a proposal to pass.
In this way, without the support of the organization led by Infantino, the introduction of the blue card, which would join the red and yellow cards, is unfeasible. Sin bins are used in rugby for a variety of fouls. Similarly, ice hockey also has such penalties, as does handball with a two-minute ejection.
