Peter Yeardley
When it first got introduced we had one every other game, now it’s very rarely used, referees have this tool but don’t use it any more. They’ve gradually lost interest in enforcing it, like the six second rules for the goalkeeper holding the ball. I’ve only seen a couple of sin bins this season and I think the blue card will be the same thing. I’m not quite sure why they’re complicating things as it’s open to interpretation, will leave the referees further apart from the game itself and there won’t be any consistency between referees.
Jennie Molyneux
I don’t think it’s helped the players because I don’t think the referees have used it properly.
The referees have the chance to clamp down on gobby players and there are many gobby players, and what they tend to do is ignore players getting in their ear from the first minute and in the 85th minute they give someone a blue card, which is kind of crazy.
Why not do it in the 10th minute rather than have the whole match disrupted by every player screaming profanity from here to next year and trying to referee the game themselves.”
John Maguire
To be fair, the sin-bin is rarely used these days – we get about three or four a season.
They have been in use for two or three seasons and it is hardly enforced by most referees now.
Instead, they will brandish a card for dissent, so time will tell how the blue card will work.
It’s hard to manage the ten minutes, does the clock stop when the ball is out of play? If it happened in the Premier League, it would filter down to our level but if it’s not done that way it could be a waste of time.
We don’t have too many cynical fouls at our level so I don’t think it will have much impact at all.
FANS and managers were quick to brandish the red card this week when reports surfaced that a blue card could be introduced in football for sin-bins for dissent and cynical fouls.
The recommendations from the International Football Association Board (Ifab) were expected to be announced on Friday, initially as a trial but with reports that next season’s FA Cup could be on the cards.
But the backlash from the top end of the game has seen that announcement delayed with further talks now set to take place.
Of course, Step 5 and 6 leagues have been using sin bins for dissent already – although not for so-called cynical fouls – with players punished with ten minutes on the sidelines.
We took an unscientific straw poll this week to gauge the mood around the country.
Tim Sills
WHEN I managed Hamworthy United at Step 5, we had the sin-bin system in operation on a trial basis for a couple of seasons and the effect it had on certain players was clear.
