The IFAB, (International Football Association Board), will officially announce on Friday the introduction of the blue card to issue a temporary expulsion. This is reported by The Telegraph.
Only the official announcement and explanation are awaited, which should occur during the IFAB general assembly on March 2, regarding this new disciplinary measure that adds to the yellow and red cards.
Its usage, as announced several times in recent weeks, will be limited to punishing excessive protests by players (a new rule is expected to come into effect allowing only the captain to address the referee) and the so-called tactical fouls. The player who receives a blue card will have to stay off the field for 10 minutes, after which they can return.
To test the introduction of this new rule, no top-level competition should be chosen, with the English Football Association proposing to start the testing phase from the next edition of the FA Cup, as some tests, called elite, need to be done, and there is the intention to start after the summer of 2024.
Certainly, temporary expulsions will not be a feature of the upcoming European Championship in Germany or the new UEFA Champions League, which will start from the 2024/25 season. In this regard, the president Aleksander Ceferin, who today announced his decision not to pursue a third term (becoming possible in today's executive committee), did not mince words, defining the possible introduction of temporary expulsion with a blunt: "It is no longer football." But, if IFAB gives final approval, European competitions will also have to adopt this new rule, as relayed by Calcio e Finanza.
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