What are blue cards? The latest innovation that could have big impact on Scottish football

A trial is expected next year across football for a new sanction available to referees

Blue cards will be shown to players sin-binned in new trials to indicate they must spend ten minutes in the technical area, The Scotsman understands.

The Daily Telegraph first reported the use of the cards on Thursday and it is believed these will be shown by referees as part of a new trial. Dissent and tactical fouls, like Giorgio Chiellini’s tug on England’s Bukayo Saka in the Euro 2020 final, will count as blue card offences. Full details of the International Football Association Board (IFAB) trial protocols are set to be published on Friday.

The Football Association in England is understood to be considering the possibility of trialling sin-bins in next season’s men’s and women’s FA Cups, but there is no suggestion as yet as to how it would affect Scottish football. The IFAB, which sets the laws of the game, also supported a proposed trial at its annual business meeting in November whereby only the team captain may approach the referee in certain major game situations.

Could blue cards be coming to the pockets of Scottish referees in the future?

Board member Mark Bullingham, the chief executive of the FA, said: “When we were looking at sin bins – protocol clearly has to be developed – the areas we were looking at were dissent, where it’s worked very, very well in the grassroots game in England. We’ve also spoken about other areas, particularly tactical fouls.

“I think frustration for fans watching games when they see a promising counter-attack that’s ruined by that and the question of whether a yellow card is sufficient for that has led to us looking at whether that should be involved in the protocol as well. The starting point was looking at player behaviour and dissent – we’re then looking at whether we should extend it into other areas, such as tactical fouls, as well.”

Sin-bins were introduced across all levels of grassroots football from the 2019-20 season in an attempt to to improve levels of respect and fair play in the game. The rule change was implemented up to step five of the National League system and tier three and below in women’s football.