The use of sin bins as a punishment for dissent or tactical fouls is to be trialled at higher levels of football after gaining approval from the International Football Association Board (IFAB).
IFAB’s Annual Business Meeting was held in London on Tuesday, with measures designed to “improve participant behaviour” and “increase respect for match officials” being debated.
Following the discussions, global football’s rulemaking body has announced that temporary dismissals will be trialled at higher levels after being successfully tried at grassroots level.
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As part of a zero-tolerance approach to dissent and an attempt to reduce disruption to games, IFAB said players could be temporarily ejected.
Sin bins were introduced at grassroots level in England from the 2019-20 season, being implemented up to step five of the non-league system and in the third tier of women’s football and below.
Football Association chief executive Mark Bullingham, who is a member of the board, said: “When we were looking at sin bins, protocol clearly has to be developed but the areas we were looking at were dissent, where it’s worked very, very well in the grassroots game in England.
“We’ve also spoken about other areas, particularly tactical fouls. I think a frustration for fans watching games is when they see a promising counterattack ruined by that.
“The question of whether a yellow card is sufficient for that has led to us looking at whether that should be involved in the protocol as well.”
IFAB Annual Business Meeting approves trials to improve participant behaviour in football
➡️ News release: https://t.co/8BVDvamgHc pic.twitter.com/IsSKMS0rkZ
— The IFAB (@TheIFAB) November 28, 2023
IFAB also announced an intention to implement a trial where only the team captains can approach the referee in certain situations, such as after a major decision has been made, in a bid to better manage “mass confrontations”.
Those at the meeting, which was chaired by Scottish Football Association chief executive Ian Maxwell, also agreed to the need to further develop semi-automated technology for offside decisions and said any changes to the VAR process should not result in further delays to games.
Meanwhile, IFAB said it would consider the full-time implementation of a trial run by FIFA at this year’s Women’s World Cup, where referees announced the final decision of any VAR review to the crowd.
