{"id":298190,"date":"2023-12-03T08:27:15","date_gmt":"2023-12-03T08:27:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportslifetale.com\/?p=298190"},"modified":"2023-12-03T08:27:15","modified_gmt":"2023-12-03T08:27:15","slug":"sin-bins-will-have-sponsors-salivating-and-see-time-wasting-rocket","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportslifetale.com\/soccer\/sin-bins-will-have-sponsors-salivating-and-see-time-wasting-rocket\/","title":{"rendered":"Sin-bins will have sponsors salivating and see time wasting rocket"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The sin-bin at Leeds Rhinos home games used to be sponsored by West Yorkshire Police. It was a neat piece of tongue-in-cheek community promotion by the boys in blue – even if they stopped short of going the whole hog and putting bars up to put prop forwards behind.<\/p>\n

Football being the commercial animal it is, there will be marketing departments rubbing their hands at the new sponsorship opportunities opened up by IFAB\u2019s decision to bring the sin-bin in next season. It is though in every other respect a mistake.<\/p>\n

The premise of improving player behaviour towards officials is laudable – heaven knows football with its culture of complaint and intimidation needs it – but the sin-bin is the wrong tool to use to reach that goal.<\/p>\n

The theory goes that players will think twice before haranguing the referee over a decision if they know a ten-minute spell on the sideline awaits but the rule-makers do not seem to have considered the unintended consequences. In professional football it is always best to assume the worst of human nature.<\/p>\n

Teams reduced temporarily to ten men – well maybe not Tottenham, but most non-Postecoglou teams – will circle the wagons, hold on to what they have and try to keep their opponents at bay with a stacked defence.<\/p>\n

They will waste time any which way possible to navigate their way through the ten minutes until they are back up to a full complement again. In what sense would that be a positive move for the game?<\/p>\n

IFAB think they are onto a winner with sin-bins on the evidence of trials in grass-roots football but they are reckoning without the cynicism and cunning which pervade the pro game.<\/p>\n

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Before you know it Evangelos Marinakis will be demanding Nottingham Forest hire a specialist sin-bin coach to \u2018manage\u2019 the minutes as effectively as possible. A better idea would be to stick with a yellow card deterrent for dissent but to prosecute offenders with an automatic one-game suspension for the next match.<\/p>\n

No totting up. One strike and you\u2019re out. Mouth off and you clear off. In that way players are punished more harshly than at present – and, with 90 minutes missed rather than ten, more harshly than under a sin-bin system – but crucially games aren\u2019t disfigured by ten versus 11 scenarios.<\/p>\n

And what of the inevitable sin-bin creep if it was brought in? While it is only intended to cover dissent and specific tactical fouls next season, as sure as a bad night for Andre Onana night follows a good one there will inevitably be an extension of the sin-bin\u2019s remit – as has happened with VAR.<\/p>\n

The rule-makers won\u2019t be able to help themselves. Before long, other offences will be tossed into the sin-bin basket and the shape of the game will be changed again.<\/p>\n

This has happened in rugby union where the original target – eradicating cynical ball-killing – has been allowed to spread so that the ten-minute sanction has become a catch-all naughty step.<\/p>\n

There is nothing intrinsically wrong with football borrowing from other sports and rugby, in general, is a good place in terms of referee respect. IFAB\u2019s other experiment to zone off the official, rugby-style, to all players other than the team captain in flashpoint situations – is a good one. As might marching whining players back ten metres be for backchat.<\/p>\n

But the sin-bin, for all the good intentions to make life better for put-upon referees, should remain a no-go zone for football.<\/p>\n

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