“Let me explain why…” – Pundit uses perfect example to show blue card’s major flaw

This week’s biggest football news has been the proposed introduction of a third, and new, disciplinary card — a blue-coloured card.

A recent report from the Telegraph confirmed the International Football Association Board’s (IFAB) plans to bring in a blue card, which, if shown to a player, would send them to a sin-bin for 10 minutes.

The plans, although not expected to be trialled in the Premier League just yet, have sparked strong backlash from fans and pundits on social media.

And the latest big name to weigh in on the potentially game-changing rule is former Liverpool attacker Stan Collymore, who wants to see the plans scrapped with immediate effect.

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Using a hypothetical in-game scenario, Collymore has explained exactly why a 10-minute sin-bin would not work in football, and his example is hard to argue against.

“The proposed introduction of blue sin-bin cards needs to be scrapped immediately. What a horrible idea, and let me explain why,” he said in an exclusive interview.

“A player makes a tackle with 10 minutes left to play that is a clear foul, but it’s not bad enough to warrant a red card, so what happens? — The ref shows him a yellow card. He has effectively been given a final warning and punished for making a poor challenge.

“Now imagine another player, playing the same game, swears under his breath at the ref’s decision. Admittedly, officials need to be shown respect, but what is worse? — The poor tackle or the use of foul language? — The answer is obviously the poor tackle, but with the introduction of a blue card, it would be the player swearing who receives the harsher punishment. Although that player would have been shown a blue card for swearing, he would have effectively been sent off because there were just 10 minutes left to play. That is the kind of scenario where the new rule falls flat on its face.

“Just leave it alone — the use of yellow and red cards have never been a problem, which is why they’ve been around for so long and why other sports have adopted the same, or similar, procedures.”

Do you agree with Collymore’s assessment? — Do blue cards solve a problem, or are they only going to amplify confusion and encourage possible rule-bending? — Let us know what you think in the comments below.