A revolution in football? Blue card in action, fans doubt its benefits. What does it mean and what are the reactions?

On Thursday afternoon, information appeared in the foreign media that the International Rules Advisory Board, or IFAB for short, will introduce big news on Friday. The blue card is to be put into action. What is it and what are the reactions?

IFAB comes up with big news

The International Rules Advisory Board(IFAB) has one big news coming up. The Telegraph newspaper has come up with an exclusive piece of information that has been circulating all football media and sports websites since Thursday afternoon.

This is because on Friday a revolutionary step is to be announced, which will be the blue card. The novelty should be tested from the summer. But so far it has been tested in amateur competitions.

According to Sky Sports, it is expected to be tested in England in both the women’s and men’s FA Cup, the oldest club competition.

“We want to start working on this as soon as possible and provide everyone involved in the process with a protocol to follow. The test has been very successful in amateur competitions. Now we need to test the novelty at a higher level. I.e. in professional football or straight at the highest level,” the Daily Mail quotes FIFA’s head of referees Pierluigi Collina as saying.

What is a blue card?

The blue card could cause an imaginary revolution in the world of football. This is because it is a new way to punish sinners who commit cynical fouls or express disagreement with the referee.

If someone receives a yellow card, it will mean that they have to leave the pitch for 10 minutes. A combination of two blue cards, or a blue and a yellow card, should mean a sending off.

If the rule is introduced, it will be the first time since the 1970 World Cup that football has seen new card penalties. That was when yellow and red cards were introduced.

The reactions are almost one-sided

The whole rule is understandably getting a lot of coverage on social media. Fans made up their minds about it rather quickly. Not everyone agrees, but quite a large majority.

The Telegraph just added a poll on social media under the announcement of the news, asking whether participants thought the introduction of the blue card was a good idea. The results? After around two hours, nearly 23,000 Twitter users have taken part in the poll. And there is a large consensus – 86.5% of those voting disagree with the news.

The reason is simple. There is already little trust in the judges. There is also a lot of criticism of VAR, which was supposed to be a great help. But even with technology, human error simply cannot be eliminated.

The blue card, according to fans, would give referees a whole new way of power to influence the game negatively. In addition, each referee would of course act very subjectively. And so there would be all sorts of controversies all the time.

Source: Sky Sports, Twitter, Telegraph