An orange card?

Fifa presidential candidate Jerome Champagne has suggested introducing orange cards that would allow referees to send players to a sin-bin.

The Frenchman, 55, launched his bid to succeed Sepp Blatter as the world governing body's president on Monday.

Former referees have mixed views on the proposals with George Courtney saying the introduction of sin-bins would work but Roger Milford insisting it would make football "too dictatorial".

Champagne, who has been backed by Pele, announced his intentions to become football's most powerful man at a news conference in London.

Champagne suggests players could be sin-binned for two or three minutes for "in-between fouls committed in the heat of the moment".

He cited the example of a player who had already been booked then receiving a second yellow card for taking off his shirt to celebrate a goal.

Champagne also suggests allowing only team captains to approach a referee to question a decision and wants referees to be able to move the ball 10 yards further forward if a player is guilty of dissent.

Courtney, who officiated in the 1986 and 1990 World Cups in Mexico and Italy respectively, believes sin-bins could work in football.

"It would have to be under the right criteria but I think the time has come to seriously consider sin-bins," said the former referee assessor. "I expect the international board would be considering them.

"Red-card offences should still be punished with a red card but maybe for some other offences it would work. I'm not sure I see the need for the 10-yard rule as I don't think that is a problem."

Fifa scrapped a rule which moved play 10 yards towards the offending team's goal if players showed dissent in 2005 after four seasons in English football.

But former referee Milford believes it should be brought back.

"It worked well before," he said. "You see it creeping into local football now with more players challenging decisions. Maybe this would make them think twice.

"I don't think the sin-bins would work though. They are going over the top.

"You already have yellow cards and red cards and any more cards would just create more room for confusion."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/25811977

I've been thinking about this and it might actually be a good idea. Maybe not exactly the way he propose but I always thought it was too big of a leap between a yellow and a red. Yellow is basically a slap on the wrist but a red is a devistating, game killing punishment. Some room Inbetween those might be beneficial

Other than the scenario where a yellow carded player gets red carded for scoring and removing his shirt, I don't see any application to it.

Maybe it should be reserved for knockout competitions. Like the champions league and WC.. Leagues are fine with how they work now.. But People wait weeks, months, years, for a certain game and sometimes they are killed by a controversial red in the first few minutes. Or something along those lines


Maybe how it can work is that with an orange card the player is sent off, but can be replaced if the team has a remaining sub. If the team is out of subs then the game is probably close to being over anyway

Maybe two yellows can equal an orange. One yellow + an orange is red. I think this would help refs be able to call big matches more fairly without having to worry about killing the match or impacting the result too much by sending someone off on a call that could have gone either way

And why not have such penalties that the referee isn't sure about but grants anyway be taken from the edge of the penalty box rather than the usual spot.

No, don't try to fix something that isn't broken.