Here we go again. Just when you thought a period of welcome stasis might have descended on the world of football rules and regulations, we look set for yet more flux. On Tuesday, the International Football Association Board (IFAB) agreed to test a raft of new measures in the game. These include sin bins – a potential 10-minute detention for bad behaviour – and a new rule stipulating that only the captain is allowed to remonstrate with the referee. Trials could be held (including in the Premier League) as early as next season.
IFAB has identified unsportsmanlike behaviour by players, including dissent, as ‘the cancer that [might] kill football’. They are particularly concerned about the ‘professional foul’: that little trip, shirt pull or shove that puts an attacker off just as a decent chance to take the ball looks likely to present itself, but which is lightly punished as it doesn’t meet the criteria for a red card.
Is player misbehavior really a ‘cancer that might kill the game’?
Every football fan is likely to have a few ‘professional fouls’ that cruelly disadvantaged their team burned into their memory.
Comments
Join the debate for just $5 for 3 months
Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for $5.
UNLOCK ACCESS Just $5 for 3 monthsAlready a subscriber? Log in