Andy Townsend calls for sin bins to be brought into football

talkSPORT pundit Andy Townsend calls for sin bins to be brought into football in a bid to tackle abuse aimed towards referees.

This point comes off the back of seeing how things are done in rugby, with sin bins, and referee audio just some of the things fans are wanting to see in football.

And with the rise in issues whether it’s confronting officials, or controversy regarding VAR or making tough decisions, changes are needed to improve the game that many would describe as being ruined.

“It’d soon shut players up!” 🤫👋

“During that period, you realise you’ve let everyone down. We’re ready for a change.”

🟨 Andy Townsend calls for sin bins to be brought into football, to tackle ref abuse. pic.twitter.com/dpOoEOO6nS

— talkSPORT (@talkSPORT) October 17, 2023

He said on the radio station this week: “We’re always on about respect for officials, right? And football officials quite clearly don’t get enough respect.

“Now, they’re not making it easy on themselves at the moment with some of the decisions they’ve been making.

“But as a starting process, I honestly, actually think when I watch that rugby and I’ve watched the way it works, and I watch when they give someone a yellow card and they so they say, off you go for 10 minutes.

“I’ve never thought of sin bin. I’ve never quite got that concept. Possibly in football.

“I think it would be a great starting point because it would soon shut players up.

“It would soon stop players from crowding around referees and hassling them and making their life a misery and increasing the pressure on them from the terraces, which is hard enough anyway.

“I actually think that it would be a good thing that if players were mouthing off at referees, swearing in their face, blatantly.

“And the world is seeing it, because every match is beamed and televised all around the world, tons of times over, I actually think it would be a good thing for football to just say to someone, you’re going to have 10 minutes over there, calm yourself down.

“And during that period, the best thing about it is you realise you’ve just let everyone down. You realise you’ve put the whole week’s work, the whole tournament at risk.

“If it’s a competition you’re playing in, by being an idiot, by saying something, by not keeping your discipline.

“That’s what’s so brilliant about those rugby boys. They know that they’re letting everybody down by perhaps stepping out of line with a bad decision.

“Not necessarily something they’ve said, because the rugby boys very rarely do it, if at all.

“But I think for footballers, I honestly think that to gain some respect for referees, if they’re mouthing off continually in people’s faces, effing and jeffing down a camera, staring at a referee, going to have 10 minutes over there, and then we’ll see how your team copes with ten.

“And that just might make you when you come back onto the field, just might make you keep you put a lid on it a little bit and control yourself a darn sight better.

“Might help referees gain a little more respect from the terraces when fans don’t see players mouthing off at them every 5 minutes.

“And I’ve been one of them. I’ve been one of them that did that.

“As a culture of football, we are now ready for some sort of change in that respect.”

𝗔𝗹𝗮𝗻: “When you get a yellow card and there’s a second yellow card, there should be a sin bin.”

𝗔𝗻𝗱𝘆: “He’s 100% right. The nature of some of the yellows are incredibly soft.”

Andy Townsend agrees with Alan Pardew regarding the introduction of sin bins pic.twitter.com/UI4bpO5uUv

— talkSPORT (@talkSPORT) August 28, 2023

From the 2019-20 season, temporary dismissals also known as ‘sin bins’ had been introduced across all levels of grassroots football to improve levels of respect and fair play in the game. Any player committing dissent will now find themselves given a 10-minute temporary dismissal from the pitch.

This positive rule change has been implemented up to Step 5 of the National League System and Tier 3 and below in women’s football. 10-minute sin bin dismissals are issued at the discretion of referees as punishment for dissent, and apply to all levels of grassroots football, including youth, veterans and disability.

But is it now time to bing them into the professional game?

Starting from the 2023/24 season, the FA have also implemented point deductions for teams across the grassroots game if their players or coaches commit repeated instances of serious misconduct. The FA aims to send a clear message that such behaviour will not be tolerated.

Again, should we also be seeing this in the Premier League and EFL?

Here’s what fans said as Andy Townsend calls for sin bins to be brought into football…

@AndyTech79: Interesting concept. Works ok in rugby and other sports so maybe worth trialing.

@sparks1886:
they don’t need a sin bin though!
they just need to use the powers that they have already!
abuse get a warning!
more abuse yellow card!
more abuse red card!
they will son stop

@strebby1: But surely then, if this is going to happen, how have to start making refs accountable for their own very very shoddy performances. You can’t sin bin players if the refs are making blatant errors on weekly basis

@dannypea: it’s been in parks football for a while now and hardly makes a difference… I just think it’s another ‘concept’ that earmarks more questions than answers… What if a side is reduced to ten on a contentious sin bin and the opposition score??? More questions on VAR decisions??

@Danny_h_2005: think it does make a difference tbh, when you see someone sin binned you very rarely give the ref any abuse after that because you know what’s coming

@RodJones1960: I like the way Rugby do it. Sin bin whilst VAR reviews for any further punishment, ie Red card.

@jamiebennett92: Nice idea, but in reality it would just become another tool to help the bigger clubs in matches that they’re struggling/losing. Most refs have some sort of bias in matches anyway, they don’t need any extra ways of unnecessarily affecting the outcomes of matches.

@thatspekkyguy: Lower level football this works brilliantly. I dont see why it cant be introduced

@Joewilliams252: Spot on. Stick the managers in there too.