Football's lawmakers Ifab are to trial sin-binning players and issuing blue cards, it will be announced on Friday. Sin-bins have been used at grassroots level for dissent but their use could be extended to cynical fouls as part of a trial. A player would spend 10 minutes in the technical area after being given a blue card by a referee. It is not yet clear when the trial will start and which competitions it will involve.
The Premier League has already ruled out being part of the initial roll-out of any trial, while football's world governing body Fifa said 'reports of the so-called 'blue card' at elite levels of football are incorrect and premature'. It added: 'Any such trials, if implemented, should be limited to testing in a responsible manner at lower levels, a position that Fifa intends to reiterate when this agenda item is discussed at the Ifab AGM on 1 March.