Sin bins are coming to Football!
What is SIN and BINS? If you’re a fan of ice hockey or rugby, then you’re surely already conversant with the concept of sin bins. If you’re not, well, we’re here to tell you.
What is SIN and BINS?
A sin bin is basically a place a player is sent to sit out some minutes of the game as a form of punishment.
Let’s put it this way, players are sent to the sin bin for offenses too serious to overlook but too minor to warrant a sending-off.
Why is this being considered for football?
Well, in October, IFAB made the observation that matches are often interrupted by mass confrontations, and they have been looking for viable solutions to this problem.
So, IFAB has now approved the idea of introducing sin bins to be trialed in the sport in order to reduce the frequency with which players confront referees during the game.
The idea is that dissent towards match officials is not so severe to warrant a sending-off, so what seems fair is sending the guilty players to a sin bin to spend a few minutes after which they’d get back to the game.
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And of course, it goes without saying, that during this time when the player is in the sin bin, he cannot be replaced, so the team will be playing with a man less for that period of time.
What even made IFAB begin to consider this?
Well, according to the body, the rate at which players disrespect match officials is becoming more and more alarming by the day. This season, there have been 88 yellow cards produced because of dissent in the Premier League alone. So, they felt they had to look for a solution.
A sin bin trial in football has already been done and the result? A 38% drop in dissent incidents. That’s an encouraging number.
According to reports, 84% of match officials, 77% of coaches, and 72% of football players have expressed interest in continuing the trial. So, we’ll see how that progresses as IFAB looks to do more to protect referees.
The Chief Executive of IFAB Lukas Brud complained about the rate at which referees are dropping out and has decided that something has to be done in order to assure referees better protection against abuse from players and encourage young officials to get into the game.
In addition to sin bins, IFAB is also considering introducing a rule where only the captains are allowed to speak to the referees during a game. So, it becomes an offense for anybody not wearing the armband to walk up to the referee and try to make their case, whatever the case.
Whatever reservations a player has about a decision or an occurrence would have to first be relayed to the captain who would then approach the referee. Uhm, what do you guys think about this particular one? Would it be a great rule or would it be as good as making the referee a god in the game?
Anyway, another important question to ask is this;
If the sin bin is introduced, how many minutes would an offending player be required to spend there?
Well, that would have to be decided by IFAB, but it’d most likely be 10 minutes or thereabout. In rugby, players who are sent to the sin bin spend 10 minutes there before they are allowed to rejoin the game.
And then Lukas Brud’s statement suggests that it could be around that time, too. He said:
“Players may not worry so much about getting a yellow card for saying something inappropriate to a referee, but it can make a big difference if they know it means a tenth of the match off the pitch.”
A tenth of a 90-minute football match is 9 minutes, so yeah, they could be considering sending the players to spend just about 9, or 10 minutes in the sin bin.
How soon should we expect sin bins in the Premier League?
Well, very soon, actually.
Sin bins were piloted as far back as the 2017-18 season, extended to more leagues in the 2018-19 season, and then in the 2019-20 season, it was used in all grassroots leagues across England.
So, you could say that the new concept has gone through as many trials as possible, so expect to see it brought into the Premier League sooner than later. In fact, we could very likely be seeing sin bins in the English top flight in the 2024-25 season. So, brace up for a major change in the sport you love.
If you want to get acclimated to the whole idea of sin bins before it comes to football, maybe take some time off to watch some rugby or ice hockey. These sports have been using sin bins as a form of punishment for a long time now.
You know what else IFAB is looking to introduce?
A new offside rule was suggested by former Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger who now serves as FIFA’s Chief of Global Football Development.
So, right now, if any part of a player’s body is ahead of the last defender, he is deemed to be offside, but under this new rule, the attacking player’s body has to be completely ahead of the last defender for him to be deemed offside.
The idea is that with the current rule, the attacking player doesn’t exactly have an unfair advantage if just his big toe is ahead of the last defender, for example. But with the new rule, the attacking player is only punished when he obviously has an unfair advantage.
This one has been cooking for some time and it could be introduced ahead of the 2024-25 season. And considering how long the current offside rule has existed, this will be a hugely significant change for football as we know it.
What do you guys think about these new sin bin and offside rules? Are they great ideas? Are they unnecessary?
Are these guys making the beautiful game unrecognizable?
Tell us what you think in the comments.
