Date: 2nd February 2017 at 12:59am
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It’s being reported that the International Football Association Board – the body responsible for law changes in the game – could potentially give the go ahead for yellow card sin bins as early as March when they meet for their annual London discussions.

With plenty of changes to the IFAB rule book last summer and on going investigations into the use of video and replay technology for contentious decisions for example, the idea of introducing a ‘sin bin’ punishment for yellow cards continues to figure highly amongst those who want to continually tweak the game.

With the idea of ‘sin bin’s’ being introduced into the game, it has been tested in some UEFA development competitions and amateur leagues in recent years and it is set to be one of the topics discussed at the next Thunderbirds meeting.

Should the go ahead be given for that change, it could come into the professional game within two to three years once it has been monitored at youth and amateur levels.

Other topics open for discussion this time round will be extra powers for national associations to have more freedom in deciding the number of substitutions in the game for example – another hot topic the last few months and of course the Serie A game in Italy already allows ten substitutes on the bench compared to the UK game.

The IFAB agenda for March reads such moves are intended to grow the grassroots game ‘by promoting and encouraging more people to take part’ and they will also be discussing ‘fairness’ in the game generally and ‘particular focus will be given to the role of the captain and how her/his responsibilities could be enhanced as part of a move to improve on field discipline and create better communication between players and match officials.’

That particular move seems to come on the back of a suggestion from Marco van Basten, the chief technical officer of governing body FIFA who has recently said that only a team captain should be able to speak to the referee in the future.

No doubt more of their agenda will out in the coming weeks, but whereas suggested changes this time last year at least seemed to simplify things and provide some clarity, the topics we know are up for discussion this time round seem a bit fluffy to say the least.

Maybe when more is known about the agenda for March there will be some appeal in them?

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