IFAB Set To Introduce Blue Card To Football, Here Is All You Need To Know

The International Football Association Board (Ifab) will introduce a Blue card to professional football later today, February 9.

The Blue card will be used as part of sin-bin trials in which players who exhibit any form of misconduct during a football match will be asked to wait on the sidelines for at least 10 minutes.

This practice has already started on a smaller scale, especially in lower leagues across Europe. In England, for instance, the first phase of the trials started during the 2019-2020 season in the lower leagues and grassroots football.

Players plying their trades in step five of the National League system and tier three and below in women’s football are already familiar with the rule.

Reports claimed that since the trials started, there has been a 38% total reduction in dissent across 31 leagues.

However, the English Premier League has reportedly said there won’t be room for such a rule in the league.

Also, a statement from FIFA claimed that “reports of the so-called ‘blue card’ at elite levels of football are incorrect and premature”.

The statement added: “Any such trials, if implemented, should be limited to testing in a responsible manner at lower levels, a position that Fifa intends to reiterate when this agenda item is discussed at the Ifab AGM [annual general meeting] on 1 March.”

How the Blue card works

Since 1970 (50 years ago), the football world has known just two colours of cards – yellow for warning, and red for sending off.

The use of these cards was said to be introduced by English referee Ken Aston during the 1970 FIFA World Cup in Mexico.

All things being equal, football enthusiasts could start seeing more than two colours of cards during professional games this year.

Ifab is expected to announce the introduction of the Blue card later today, which will be shown to players who commit a cynical foul or show dissent towards a match official.

Once a player is shown the card, the player will have to wait on the sidelines for at least ten minutes before he will return to the match. This means that the offender’s team will play for ten minutes with a man short.

If a player accumulates two blue cards or one blue card and one yellow card, the player will be sent off outrightly.