FIFA has dismissed reports that claim a controversial 'blue card' sin-bin system is about to be implemented into elite professional football as "incorrect and premature".
The Telegraph reported on Thursday that the new match officiating system has been signed off by the game's international law-making body, the International Football Association Board (Ifab), with an official announcement due on Friday. The report said that trials of the blue card, which would be the first new card to be introduced in football since red and yellow cards were first used at the 1970 World Cup, are set to commence this summer.
Under the proposed system, a blue card would be awarded to players who commit a cynical foul or show dissent towards an official, resulting in the player being sent to a sin-bin for 10 minutes. A player would be shown a red card if they received two blue cards or a combination of one blue card and one yellow card during a match.
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Top-tier competitions like the Premier League are said to have been excluded from the initial trials but could commence as soon as the summer, with the FA Cup and Women's FA Cup suggesting possible trial events. But on Friday, the sport's world-governing body played down the reports and insisted that testing for the idea would only be implemented at a low level in the game.
FIFA Media wrote on social media platform X: "FIFA wishes to clarify that reports of the so-called 'blue card' at elite levels of football are incorrect and premature. 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 on 2 March."
The use of blue card sin-bins at this year's European Championships or next season's Champions League has already been ruled out by UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin, who is completely opposed to them. He told the Telegraph: “It’s not football anymore.”
