IFAB to introduce blue card as additional disciplinary measure in football

A blue card is to be introduced to football as part of sin-bin trials to be announced on Friday, February 9, 2024.

According to Telegraph Sport, the International Football Association Board (IFAB), football’s law-making body, has signed off on what would be the first new card to be used in the sport since the advent of yellow and red cards at the Mexico 1970 World Cup.

IFAB will announce the new rule as part of sin-bin protocols that will see players removed from the field for 10 minutes if they commit a cynical foul or show dissent towards a match official.

The new protocol will reduce the new card to fouls that prevent a promising attack and dissent, and confirming a player should be shown a red card if they receive two blue cards during a match or a combination of yellow and blue.

However, top-tier competitions will not be part of the initial testing in the professional game in case the protocols require further refinement, but elite trials could still take off as soon as the summer.

Meanwhile, sin-bins will not be used in this summer’s European Championship or next season’s Champions League after UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin, last month said he was not in support adding that “It’s not football anymore.”

UEFA nevertheless could be forced to introduce them if after trials, they are being added to the laws of the game.