The sin bin rule is coming to football

Football purists will not be happy.

The English Football Association has announced that they will trial the ‘sin bins’ in English football next season. Players that receive a yellow card, for dissent, will be made sit in the sin bin for 10 minutes, identical to the rule in rugby. The rule will be trialled by teams in the lower leagues of English football with more than 1,000 clubs reportedly receiving emails over the weekend asking if they would be part of the process. This isn’t the first time that the sin bin rule has been implemented in football with it being used by Irish footballers. In 2015, Ireland’s U16s took park in a development tournament where the sin bin was in place. It was the second time that the tournament has used the rule and head coach at the time; Tom O’Connor believes that officials are embracing the new rule.

 "On the first go, they [referees] were very reluctant to put a player off whereas, in this particular instance, they're enforcing it a bit more stringently.”

Portugal legend Luis Figo proposed the sin bin rule when he intended to run for FIFA Presidency in 2015. The aim of the rule is to reduce unsportsmanlike behaviour in the game and O’Connor said he could notice a difference when participating in the tournament back in 2015.

"The Danish lads were very reluctant to tackle because of the rules whereas I just told our players to make their tackles as they usually would and, if it's a yellow card, then so be it.”

Clubs in England are usually fined £10 per yellow card but will not be charged if they participate in the trial.