FA Confirms ‘Sin Bin’ Trials

The Football Association (FA) is to trial so-called ‘sin bins’ from the 2017-2018 season, it has been announced.

The trial was discussed by the FA at an International Football Association Board meeting last month at Wembley Stadium, and will see ‘temporary dismissals’ introduced when a player is shown a yellow card. Players will then be forced to leave the field for 10 minutes.

At this stage it will be rolled out to England’s Step 7 league – six tiers below the National League. In addition it will also be used in Sunday league and youth football, both male and female. ‘Sin bins’ are already common in some other sports, such as in rugby and ice hockey.

At this stage the trial will be optional and leagues will be open to decide whether or not to use it.

According to reports in the media, over 1000 clubs were contacted over the weekend and asked if they would trial ‘sin bins’. An FA spokesperson told the BBC: ‘There has already been a positive response with over 60 leagues in support of it.’ ‘Sin bins’ have been trialled in UEFA’s development competitions in recent years and in Dutch amateur leagues this season. The FA notes that with dissent accounting for ’24 per cent of all cautions at grassroots level’, ‘the intention is to change the behaviour and impose an immediate sanction’.

It adds: ‘The system imposes an immediate sanction on the player, who will then undertake a ten-minute period of a temporary dismissal (period amended for youth games accordingly).

‘And whilst referees will still be required to report the incident in order for the RESPECT sanctioning to continue and to record cautions for continual misconduct purposes, the sin bin caution will not attract the normal £10 administration fee as cautions for dissent currently do. This puts the focus purely on changing behaviour.’

Rumours that the FA was considering trialling the use of ‘sin bins’ were reported earlier this year and the concept has the support of Marco van Basten, FIFA`s new chief officer for technical development, even though some other trials have already indicated it can adversely affect both the flow of the game and deter players from committing to tackles.

The odds of this being rolled out further then is far from certain, although if you were to take a punt you`d probably have more chance picking out who might win the Champions League or the FA Cup, rather than trying to say when or if this will be introduced at a professional level. Several media reports, however, do speculate that this trial is a stepping stone to its introduction in the Premier League.

‘Sin bins’ are not the only measures being mooted to try and improve the game. Other future proposals include plans that will see only the captain of a team allowed to speak to the referee, as well as the roll-out of new technology to help diagnose serious head injuries and the adoption of VARs – Video Assistant Referees, the latter possibly rolled-out as soon as 2018 and in time for the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia.