Reports surfaced on Thursday that football’s lawmakers IFAB are set to announce plans to introduce a blue card as part of their sin bin trial proposals.
The organisation firstly recommended the use sin bin trials in the professional sphere in November. Sin bins would be introduced for players who have committed cynical fouls or dissent on the field of play.
They’ve been trialled at grassroots level since 2019 in lower league English competitions but now, IFAB want to further testing and will make an official declaration over the plans in March.
They also would like to see a blue card introduced which would be shown to players before they are sent to the sin bin for a period of 10 minutes.
If the plans come to fruition, it would mark the introduction of a new card for the first time since the 1970 World Cup when the yellow and red were both bedded in.
Brendan Rodgers on blue cards
Reporters in Lennoxtown gathered for Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers’ press conference ahead of the side’s Scottish Cup fifth round tie with St Mirren on Sunday.
And they were keen to glean the Northern Irishman’s take on the blue card proposals and whether he would like to see it added to the yellows and reds shown by referees.
Rodgers replied with a witty remark and had journalists in the press room laughing with his clear reference to Glasgow’s goldfish bowl rivalry.
He told of his reaction when first reading about the blue card reports: “Well as soon as I seen it, I said ‘I work in Scotland, I’m sure they better have a green card as well as a blue one because we might be in trouble!’
“So yeah, just don’t complicate it. Just make a decision whether it’s a red, yellow or no card. We don’t need a blue card up here, that’s for sure. No, no way!”
It was a David Brent-esque response from Rodgers who saw the funny side of the blue card proposals. The 51-year-old looked in good spirits despite the pressure he is under from fans.
Celtic go into the St Mirren trip in poor form but could be galvanised by the team’s last-gasp victory over Hibs in midweek.
We’ll see how much fire is in the bellies of the players on Sunday because that has been lacking of late. Quality in attack has also been in short supply and a statement performance is now desperately needed to stay in the fight for two major trophies this campaign.
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