The Sin Bin

[Albino Rover]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/67549886

The IAFB have recommended 10 minute Sin Bins be introduced to professional games, on a trial basis, for cynical fouls and dissent.

Is this a good idea for those situations where neither a red nor yellow card are appropriate?

What fouls should it be used for?

Are there occasions where a 10-minute rest is actually beneficial to an on-field player? (I am having visions of a European knock-out game where Jose Mourinho encourages Dybala to call the ref a nasty name at the 60-minute mark, then getting his team to sit in until his newly-energised forward can come back on and run at the tired defence...)

It has been trialled at grassroots level, and there is now a very real possibility of it happening in the games we watch.

What are your thoughts?

[Bully Wee Villa]

I think it's a dreadful idea. Dissent is one of the most inconsistently applied rules going, sometimes you will see teams chase the referee to the halfway line and other times it's one moan = instant booking.

Just on a practical level I don't think it works in a sport that doesn't have clock that stops when the ball is not in play. Teams that are down to ten men for ten minutes will just spend as much of that time as possible wasting time. That could easily happen three or four times per half and will make for an awful spectacle.

[Merkie84]

Dreadful idea. 
 

As mentioned above, there are already rules to deal with dissent etc. needs better quality of refereeing across the board. 
 

That it “works in other sports is irrelevant”. Different sports have different rules, that is why they are different sports. 
 

Why is it any attempts by those in charge to improve football always make it far worse. Just leave the game alone FFS. 

Edited November 29, 2023 by Merkie84
Spelling

[Northboy]

I've heard this mentioned a few times and my instinct is that it would be difficult for referees to manage, particularly at grass roots level should it come to that. If  a player is binned for 10 mins you can be sure when the that when their watch hits 9 mins the coaching staff are shouting for the player to get back on. Then you have to allow for stoppages within the 10 min period. To me it sounds like it would create more problems than it solves. 

[DG.Roma]

13 hours ago, Bully Wee Villa said:

Just on a practical level I don't think it works in a sport that doesn't have clock that stops when the ball is not in play. Teams that are down to ten men for ten minutes will just spend as much of that time as possible wasting time. That could easily happen three or four times per half and will make for an awful spectacle

Completely agree with this. In the EFL this season they've brought in a rule where if a player goes down for treatment he has to stay off the pitch for 30 seconds once play resumes, rather than just going off and getting waved straight back on. It works because it stops players staying down and pretending to be injured to run down the clock near the end of a game.

However, if a player genuinely does need treatment and is then off for 30 seconds, his team inevitably does what they can to waste time if they get the chance - taking ages over a throw-in or a goal kick or whatever. The sharper refs book players and extend the 30 seconds, but of course not all will. This will obviously only get worse over 10 minutes when the ball is out of play more often.

[Marten]

13 hours ago, Bully Wee Villa said:

I think it's a dreadful idea. Dissent is one of the most inconsistently applied rules going, sometimes you will see teams chase the referee to the halfway line and other times it's one moan = instant booking.

Just on a practical level I don't think it works in a sport that doesn't have clock that stops when the ball is not in play. Teams that are down to ten men for ten minutes will just spend as much of that time as possible wasting time. That could easily happen three or four times per half and will make for an awful spectacle.

Spot on, especially because the clock doesn't get stopped in football it will just encourage more timewasting. A friend of mine is referee in Dutch youth football and our equivalent of lower Sunday league where they do have that rule and he at times struggles dealing with it. It also makes him think twice to book the goalkeeper for dissent for example as it results in messy situations like an outfield player having to go in goal for 10 minutes and then the goalie coming back on, or the reserve goalie being subbed on and when the 10 minutes are up another sub happening.

[DA Baracus]

Why would this be enforced when the current sanctions for shouting at/abusing refs/officials aren't?

[jamamafegan]

Stinking idea. Besides, they shouldn't be looking to introduce any major changes to the game until they've fixed (preferably scrapped) the absolute farce that is VAR.

[Michael W]

It's about time people accept that just because something works in rugby does not mean it will work in football. This is exactly how we've ended up with the disaster that is VAR. 

I don't see the point in this - why is chucking someone off the pitch for 10mins sufficient punishment, but a yellow card is not? Why should a player be put off the pitch for 10mins for dissent whilst a tackle that injured a player is punished with a yellow card and no time off the pitch? It makes no sense. Just show the yellow card when it's merited and if the player continues to mouth off, send him off. The message will soon be received. 

Edited November 29, 2023 by Michael W

[Marten]

5 hours ago, Michael W said:

It's about time people accept that just because something works in rugby does not mean it will work in football. This is exactly how we've ended up with the disaster that is VAR. 

I don't see the point in this - why is chucking someone off the pitch for 10mins sufficient punishment, but a yellow card is not? Why should a player be put off the pitch for 10mins for dissent whilst a tackle that injured a player is punished with a yellow card and no time off the pitch? It makes no sense. Just show the yellow card when it's merited and if the player continues to mouth off, send him off. The message will soon be received. 

This! The rule is there, just bloody enforce it. You keep hearing once in a while that a league/FA says they will enforce it more but rarely anything changes. Moaning at the referee, waving the imaginary card, being in the referee's face before he can even show what his decision is, etc? Instant booking, no exception, also not for players who were already on a yellow, they shouldn't have been so f*cking stupid then. Do you keep going on after being booked? Off you go! Still mouthing off the referee after being shown red? Increase the suspension.

If this gets properly and consistently enforced, you'd get a whole load of yellow/red cards for the first few months, but after that players will get used to it.

Edited November 29, 2023 by Marten

[Diamonds are Forever]

Dissent could be fixed in 2 weeks if they actually just enforced the law strictly. Make sure any dissent is an instant yellow card, you'd have 2 weeks of chaos before teams realised they'd end up with 8 men and would learn to shut up.

Previously I've wondered why referees are so willing to just accept abuse and do nothing about it but I think there is a fear that they'll look ridiculous dishing out all these bookings when other referees aren't, therefore it needs a united effort with everyone doing it at once. It would also give more power to grass roots referees to enforce the same laws and stop them getting treated terribly.

Making things more complex by bringing in sin-bins, when there is a perfectly good solution already available, is ridiculous.

[Bully Wee Villa]

Why don't the overseas players just dissent in their native languages? It's pretty unlikely that officials will have memorised "you must be blind, you fucking twat" in Swedish, Romanian, Japanese and Igbo.

[vikingTON]

IFAB and that doddery c**t Wenger need emptied from any position of influence over the sport.