FIFA President Gianni Infantino has ruled out blue cards being shown to players sent into sin bins.
A plan had been formed by some of football’s lawmakers for a new card to join the long-standing red and yellow ones that referees can deploy.
The proposal emerged last month, with Sky News understanding that some protocols had already been prepared for release.
Sin bins are currently only used at the lower levels of grassroots football, with players sent into them for 10 minutes for dissent.
But Mr Infantino rejected the idea of blue cards being used in the professional game.
Speaking in Scotland, ahead of Saturday’s meeting of the International Football Association Board (IFAB) at Loch Lomond, he said: “FIFA is completely opposed to blue cards.
“Red card to the blue card. No way. You have to be serious.
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“We are always open at IFAB, at FIFA, to look into ideas and proposals… but once you look at it you also have to protect the game, the essence of the game, the tradition of the game.
“There is no blue card.”
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Image: Blue cards for sin-bins were ruled out by the FIFA president
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The world governing body holds four of the eight votes on IFAB, which is holding its 138th annual meeting this weekend. The other votes are held by the four British nations.
Mr Infantino also dismissed calls for temporary concussion substitutes, following a request from players’ unions concerned about long-term brain damage caused by head injuries.
FIFA’s preference is for teams to make an extra permanent substitution to replace players suspected of having a concussion.
Image: Pic: PA
Mr Infantino said: “We studied it and medical experts are saying it is simply impossible in a few minutes to be able to determine whether there has been a concussion, whether concussion is serious or not.
“And that’s why, in case of a suspected concussion, the player has to be substituted.
“If you want to care about the health of the player, then the players go out and another player comes in, and that’s the end of it.
“And this would protect the player. All the rest is not protecting the heads of players, just making some PR announcements.”
Football’s law-making body IFAB is being sued by a group of former players in the UK who allege they suffered brain injuries from playing football and authorities failed to take reasonable action to protect them from repeated concussive and sub-concussive blows.
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A spokesman for the Professional Footballers’ Association told Sky News: “It sends a terrible message about the game’s priorities when IFAB will take seriously the idea of removing a player for 10 minutes for dissent, but oppose it if the player might be suffering from concussion.
“Leagues and unions are aligned in the view that temporary concussion subs are a positive step for player welfare.
“As the game’s rule makers, IFAB should reflect that by allowing trials – not stand in their way.”
Last year a Swedish study found footballers are 50% more likely to develop dementia than the rest of the population.
But goalkeepers – who rarely head the ball – had no increased risk of Alzheimer’s or dementia.
This “support(ed) the hypothesis that mild head impacts sustained when heading the ball could explain the increased risk in outfield players”, the study concluded.
Source : Sky News
