I’m all for the sin bin as the “last chance” – get two bookable offences and you spend 10 minutes in the bin. Come back on and get a yellow and you’re off.

Far too many games are spoiled by sendings off, especially double yellows.

I like this idea.

For all those berating this idea, I think you either have the wrong end of the stick or you have not thought this through.

Straight red would still be a straight red.
Red due to 2nd yellow would still be a sending off.
Yellow for a cynical foul, etc would still be a yellow.
Yellow for trivial things, may become sin bin offences.

By trivial, I mean things which are currently worthy of a yellow, but 2 of those would be overly harsh if leading to a sending off.

When a team is down to 10, they have to work much harder.

Which idiot said a player would come back refreshed? If he stops for 10 or 20 minutes in the sin bin, then starts again, he’s risking injury as his body and muscles will have started to cool down. So for 10 or 20 minutes he still has to keep his movement up.

As for playing 10 players outplaying 11… I have yet to see a Premiership manager (or any other) send out a team depleted by 1 to prove that theory

People just have to keep an open mind. All new proposed systems are there to improve the sport: making it safer, more free flowing and enjoyable to fans and players alike, without diminishing the passion and intensity. I’m for any kind of system that contributes towards the eradication of dissent and cynical play as long as it is tested thoroughly and results are positive.

Stop hallucinating about what I’ve said.

I’m against consistency for the sake of consistency, and I’m against knee-jerk reactions opposing any sort of change. I think sin-binning, like other changes, are ideas worth discussion. That does not mean that I support it – far from it.

If you think the idea is old, then point to a full discussion of the pros and cons and I’ll read it and we can debate about it.

You’re right, it does encourage cynical behavior (I said that in my previous comment as well), and that’s a problem. I would still be interested in exploring all sides of the situation before binning an idea.

People use the same approach (rejecting ideas without thought) when it comes to video replays. We’ve had enough debate on those and you know where I stand on it – if it’s workable, let’s introduce it but if it causes more problems then it’s not worth it.

Ditto with sin-binning.

Ahmed -
Stop advocating change for the SAKE of change. If a player is swearing at a ref, the ref can take issue with it and issue a warning for future offences. That is perfectly within the ref’s rights & any good ref worth his salt would do exactly that. The real problem is that the FA & FIFA don’t back their ref’s up properly which is why a lot of bad decisions are made under lots of pressure.

Since when are American sports known for their sporting behaviour anyway? And you want to introduce an idea from a sport where overt physical contact is a must as part of the gameplay.

Instead of improving refereeing and getting players to stop ‘simulation’ behaviour, these issues are avoided in favour of a stop-gap measure like ‘sin-binning’. I’m in favour of a video-replay by the way, ONLY for the ref to use IF he pleases. And don’t lessen the impact of a yellow/red card has on a player with such ideas. They are the ref’s only real power in a game which can so easily degenerate into shitty gameplay.