The FA Cup are reportedly set to introduce big changes to VAR while also looking at bringing in sin bins from next season.
The Football Association (FA) is considering the implementation of sin-bins in the FA Cup as a means to address dissent and tactical fouls committed by players.
During its annual meeting next month, the International FA Board (Ifab) is expected to officially approve the trials for sin-bins in professional football, with it already used at grassroots level.
This would grant referees the authority to temporarily remove players from the field for a period of ten minutes in response to cynical fouls or disrespectful behaviour towards match officials.
Sources have informed The Times that the FA is seriously contemplating introducing these trials in both the men’s and women’s FA Cups.
However, before reaching a final decision, the FA will need to carefully work out the specific protocols and details.
If approved, the earliest possible implementation of sin-bins in these competitions would be in the 2024/25 season.
The decision to conduct trials at the senior level of professional football follows the successful pilot studies conducted in amateur and youth football in England and Wales.
However, those trials only utilized sin-bins for instances of dissent.
Ifab, the governing body responsible for the laws of the game, will convene in Scotland next month and is expected to grant permission for extended trials as early as the upcoming season. The agenda for the meeting will be released on Tuesday.
Pierluigi Collina, the chairman of the Fifa Referees Committee, said back in November 2023 that sin-bin trials would be expanded.
He stated: “We are now discussing the possibility of implementing it at a higher level, most likely in professional or even high professional football. We certainly need a system that is effective and suitable for top-level football.”
One example of a foul that has been discussed by Ifab as deserving of a sin-bin punishment is the incident in the Euro 2020 final, seeing Italy’s Giorgio Chiellini pull the shirt of England’s Bukayo Saka, which resulted in a yellow card being shown.
Ifab consists of the four British associations, each with one vote, and Fifa, which holds four votes.
Any decision requires a minimum of six votes to be approved.
The upcoming meeting is also expected to endorse trials of a rule similar to rugby, where only the team captain is allowed to approach the referee. This is part of an effort to address misconduct within the sport.
Sky Sports’ Paul Merson says: “So they want to bring in sin bins. Sin bins? Pathetic. In rugby union, you go down to 14 players, the other team’s looking at scoring seven to 10 points. It’s a massive advantage. A massive advantage.
“You put someone in the sin bin in football for 10 minutes, you’re killing the game. You’d get 10 players sitting behind the ball the whole time, it’d be the most boring football ever. It’s an absolute waste of time, a waste of time.
“Everybody loves the Premier League, you have a shot at one end and there’s a corner up the other end 30 seconds later. That just goes out the window for this 10 minutes, the team with the man down have got no choice but to sit behind the ball.
“All they’d be doing then for that 10 minutes is taking their time over taking a throw-in, they’ll take a goal kick, they’ll buy a foul, and it’ll just grind out the worst 10 minutes you could imagine.
“You’re playing in the biggest league in the world, there’s going to be emotions, they get high – that’s the way it is. You’re playing to win, everybody wants to win. The thing they need to really get rid of is cheating.
“Reece James gets booked for kicking the ball away the other day at Newcastle, but someone’ll run into the box, dives and falls over and everyone says play on, no penalty.
“Which one should be booked? The cheat should be booked, the one who’s tried to buy a penalty, over kicking the ball away. Just put another 30 seconds on for that.
“We’re talking about people who know the rules but don’t have a clue about football. Not a clue. It’ll just make people argue even more! ‘Oh, he should’ve been sent to the sin bin last week.’
“When are they going to stop? Don’t put new things in when you haven’t fixed the problems with the rules you’ve already got.
“It’s like going to a restaurant and having a spaghetti bolognese, it comes out and you take a taste and say ‘Oh, that tastes horrible’. You don’t put it back in the kitchen and start putting extra stuff in it! They’re putting more pressure on themselves.”
SEE MORE: Andy Townsend calls for sin bins to be brought into football
This is how Twitter users reacted with the FA Cup reportedly set to introduce big changes to VAR while also bringing in sin bins from next season…
@FarPostFM: Confuses me, surely no referee will send a keeper to a sin bin for 10 minutes? So if there’s a disciplinary measure only in place for outfield players, that seems a bit odd to me?
@MrLiamArnold: This should have been implemented years ago. Diving, blatant shirt pulling etc get in the bin for 10 minutes. Red cards should be for serious foul play.
@ccfcmatchworn: Please no, will just mean 10mins of the team down to 10 parking the bus
@StevenR50132404: We have enough issues at the moment without introducing anything else
@scfchbbz: Stop changing things and just get better refs
@LeeReyn92459660: Don’t ruin the beautiful game any more than it already is.
@JohnAtki59: Personally don’t see a problem, it works perfectly well in both rugby codes…
@Wiggy05: You can just imagine them sat around the table coming up with ideas to wreck the competition even more, if the inconsistency of VAR/No VAR, replay/No replay wasn’t good enough they introduce this to the ‘Magic’ too. You can put this idea in the (sin) bin.
@PeteJArmstrong: The suggestion makes one realise how far behind football is from the rest of sports. So many easy changes could be applied.
@alexdsmiff: Another sanction for them to apply inconsistently. They struggle with the options they have now they don’t need confusing further, bless them.
@RandomAndyLyon: Every time a ref makes a wrong decision they go in the sin bin for 10 mins with a replacement ref coming on
@jl195480:
It seems to work at lower levels of the pyramid.
1. You have to be abusive to yellow card level for it to happen.
2. Only seen two instances of it happening this season.
3. If a player gets sin-binned it’s their own fault.
@BenBoo1984: Player gets sin binned. His team then just sit in, dive, time waste and kill the clock. Another step towards the death of the spectator experience. VAR, Sin Bins, whats next? Remove tackling, no more thundering 50/50 challenges, none contested drop balls. Oh. KILLING THE GAME!
@10woz_: Here’s an absolutely bonkers idea right don’t shoot me down for it please. Why don’t they just hire competent referees?
@_nam11: Dissent, I understand, sort of. Tactical fouls? How on earth is a ref going to know if a foul is tactical or not? They’re not even strong enough to stick with their decision, if VAR (aka another ref) ask them to review the monitor. This is gonna get messy.
@garnwaa: Rules decided by those who could never kick a football successfully so playing their part in destroying the game year by year. Same as refs nowadays who make the game all about them.. 15 years time will be no contact mark my words
@Joelbirmz12: We’d be fucked and it would only benefit the top sides let’s be honest
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