‘More negatives than positives’: Will ‘sin bins’ change football?

By Emre Asikci

ISTANBUL (AA) – Football could be on the brink of some major changes, with plans afoot to introduce “sin bins” to punish players for dissent or tactical offenses.

At an end-November meeting in London, the International Football Association Board (IFAB) recommended a high-level trial for sin bins, which is basically a way for referees to temporarily remove a player from the game.

Another proposed rule is only allowing the team captain to approach the referee, along with changes to handball rules to ensure that only deliberate ones, which directly prevent a goal, are deemed worthy of a red card.

Other changes include making sure that the ball is placed on the center of the spot during penalty kicks.

However, football’s rule-making body has not offered many specifics on the sin bin trial, nor has it set a timeline for the tests.

“So, they’ve been trialing the use of sin bins, temporary dismissals in grassroots, youth football, for a little while. And apparently that’s been quite successful,” Nick Miller, a football writer for sports news platform The Athletic, told Anadolu.

“At the moment, there’s only quite a specific set of things that someone could be put in the sin bin for. It’s currently limited to dissent towards referees.”

Other things that could come under its ambit would be “tactical transgressions … tactical fouling,” when a player is looking “to launch an attack and the opposition player just trips them up,” he explained.

Miller pointed out that there is still no “real kind of published evidence” about the effectiveness of sin bins and whether they can actually cut down dissent in games.

“It’s basically that the referee will show a yellow card and point towards the touchline. The player will then have to go off for 10 minutes. They just have to stay on the sidelines,” he said.

“So, in theory, a goalkeeper could be temporarily put in there, so that could create something kind of slightly chaotic.”

- ‘More negatives than positives’

In Miller’s view, there could be “more negatives than positives” with the introduction of sin bins.

“In theory, it could reduce the amount of dissent and abuse that referees get, which is obviously something that I think most people would want,” he said.

On the negative side, he said one of the main downsides could be that it will “slow the game down.”

“I think it would actually probably increase time-wasting because if a team has a player put in the sin bin for 10 minutes, they will obviously want as little actual football to happen in that 10 minutes when they are down to 10 players as possible,” he explained.

“So, they will do their best to make sure that as much time is wasted in that 10-minute spell.”

Miller asserted that it will be particularly difficult to assess whether the plan has “succeeded or not.”

“I suppose the way you assess it is whether it does prevent the descent towards referees, and it does stop players from doing these kinds of tactical fouls,” he said.

It remains to be seen how the results of the grassroots trials “will actually translate to professional level, to the Premier League, to the higher levels of the game,” he said.

“That is difficult to say because the game is obviously so different … I suppose the only way that it can be assessed is if it definitely, like visibly, reduces the amount of dissent and abuse that referees get. But that’s going to be really difficult.”