The Rational RefRugby-like sin bin will help officials manage players
Uefa chief Michel Platini is asking rule-makers to adopt a law that would see offenders sent off for 10 to 15 minutes
The idea of a sin bin for players has been dusted down and championed to the public again. In the latest attempt to change the existing system of cautions, Uefa president Michel Platini will demonstrate how powerful and influential he is.
"I would make it like rugby, punishing the offender with 10 or 15 minutes out of the game," said Platini. "It is an idea. Now it needs to mature and see if it really is good for the game. It is a proposal to be explored."
The proposal will be put forward to the International Football Association Board (Ifab) meeting early next year where eight important individuals will decide its fate. Four represent Fifa and four represent the four traditional football associations from England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland. This group decides the game's universal laws and in 2009 voted against the idea of using sin bins.
Last week Platini indicated the main problem with the disciplinary system is there is no in-game or immediate punishment for cautionable offences. Players pick up a certain number of yellow cards spread over several matches and once they reach a threshold they receive a suspension.
For instance, in the EPL players who accumulate five cautions will receive a one-match suspension. Platini said these future suspensions based on accumulated cautions mainly benefit competitors in forthcoming matches. "[With sin bins], the benefit goes to the team he is playing against, instead of a sanction by cards which is carried out against a third team, the next on the calendar," said Platini. "I think it's something everyone in Fifa and Uefa agrees, but one or two of the countries that make up the international board are unwilling to change."
Bear in mind that Platini had no problem with dissenting views from Ifab members when he single-handedly pushed forward the use of additional assistant referees - those match officials who stand on the goal-line looking important but who in fact are ineffective - which the Ifab agreed to endorse. Technophobe Platini did this as his rival, Fifa president Sepp Blatter pushed for goal-line technology.