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Sin Bins and Four Subs? The Power of the IFAB…
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Do you know about the International Football Association Board (IFAB)? I was only vaguely aware of them until I read a link in yesterday’s Daily Dose about the possibility of sin bins being introduced to football. But turns out they meet once a year and decide on how football is played.
I did a bit of research into the IFAB, and here’s the lowdown: It’s made up of eight representatives – one from each of the four UK football associations and another four from FIFA. And if six out of those eight vote in favour of a rule change, then that’s how we all play football from there on out. Pretty damn powerful.
Even FIFA’s own description of IFAB contains this sentence:
While the International F.A. Board is by no means a mysterious institution, it does have a somewhat secretive aura.
Wow.
I know what you’re thinking: Why do the four UK football associations have so much power? Well, the IFAB first met in 1882, so that the four UK associations could agree on a set of laws for when they played each other.
FIFA came along in 1904, and agreed to play by the rules that IFAB had agreed on. That tradition has continued, only now FIFA’s four votes mean the UK associations can’t just dictate to the rest of the world. Otherwise they could have passed an emergency rule to qualify one of them for Euro 2008…
The IFAB meets on February 28th this year, and here are the pretty radical things they’ll be proposing:
1. Sin Bin – as used in ice hockey and rugby. For minor offences that don’t warrant a red card, a player would have to leave the field and sit in the sin bin for five or ten minutes, giving an obvious advantage to the opposition.
2. Four subs – Sounds radical but it’s really not. Remember there used to be no subs, then teams were allowed one sub, then two and now three. With the size of squads today, and the pace of football, I think this would be a pretty good idea.
3. Clarification of offside – Remember when Ruud van Nistelrooy was judged to be offside at Euro 2008 because Christian Panucci was off the pitch? The law could be changed to make sure that never happens again.
4. Extended half-time – Right now it’s 15 minutes between halves, but the IFAB will discuss extending that to 20 minutes. Apparently this is because the dressing rooms are so far away in new stadiums that players spend most of halftime getting there. This would work for me because I always seem to miss second half kickoff while cuing queuing for a drink.
Seems the alternative would be penalty box, which wouldn’t work for obvious reasons.
Seems that’s what most people are used to calling it, even in the UK we have “sin bin” in rugby union, so the phrase wouldn’t be all that badly received.
How come the UK gets six representatives while FIFA has only four? What about all the other associations?
Posted from 
United States
No, it’s four each Inara. UK has England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland FAs and FIFA has four representatives. And then any proposal needs six votes to pass.
I can understand the historical nature of it, but seems to me that the IFAB should be expanded so every FA in the world gets a vote.
No, U.K. get four. Fifa gets the other four. And its like daryl said, it was started by the four UK associations so they can agree on a set of rules when they play each other. Fifa goes along with what they decide. And daryl, I get what it is, its just the idea of adding that to football is ridiculous just like the name. That’s all I meant. I hope that one gets voted down.
It would be impossible with that many people arguing over the rules. I think as long as the rules never give an advantage to only the UK teams, its fine to limit fifa to four. i don’t really see any possible rule that would do that.
Thing about the Sin Bin – It works in Rugby because that sport is much more reliant on players playing certain positions – I appreciate that its a disadvantage having 10 men in football, but not the same disadvantage as in Rugby.
Would it replace the Yellow Card completely?
I like four subs, 20 minute half times and offside clarification. This “Sin bin” is rediculous. Either warning, yellow or red. End of story. It’s just pointless in football. All the team has to do is shift a player back for 5 minutes while the offender gets a nice rest. Then after 5 minutes they go back to where they were before, with one player slightly less fatigued.
Posted from United States
I’d imagine it would be something like this:
first yellow card, sin bin for 10 minutes.
second yellow card, showers baby, you’re outta here!
I’d rather see the sin bin used as a deterrent for people faking injuries. Hurt bad enough to need medical attention? Spend 5 minutes on the side of the pitch. I think it would certainly keep the Nani’s of the footballing world from slowing the game down, at least to some extent.
Posted from United States
i agree with mack – the sin bin should be turned into a heal bin. if you went down bad enough to warrant a play interruption, more time wasted for treatment and to shake the injury off… then you can do so on the sideline and out of the way.
otherwise they should look at introducing more technology into the game or more eyes.in these days of hawkeye, although not perfect it would help eliminate at least 50% of the disputed goal or no goal situations…
Posted from 
Malta
Rules 2, 3, and 4 are good. The first rule… sounds a bit difficult to work with but I wouldn’t mind that either. The thing they need to fix is when a player goes down during play and the opposing team has the ball. They shouldn’t be required to stop play and the “injured” player’s team should be prevented from asking for play to stop. It’s ridiculous how many attacks that strategy has prevented/stopped. The heal bin idea is good but even if that were put into the game it is still better for the “injured” player to force the game to stop because his team just needs to build a bus until the “injured” player is allowed back into the field.
sin bin is a really silly idea.
‘This would work for me because I always seem to miss second half kickoff while cuing for a drink.’
It would work for me as well actually. I actually have a habit of heading to the toilet, watching the Teletext at half-time and sometimes I realised there is not enough time for me. Because there are times I did missed the opening minutes of the second-half of a match. It makes worse when a goal is scored at that time and I wondered who had scored.
Given I do not watch much rugby (the rugby I watched was during the Rugby World Cup last year!), I will have to say I like what you said about No. 2,3 and 4, Daryl.
Posted from 
Singapore
by the way you spell ‘queuing’, I assume you mean waiting on line.
Posted from United States
The “sin bin” idea is a ridiculous farce. It’s just a CYA attempt for weak referees who wouldn’t show a straight red for a decapitation with a ninja sword.
I do like the idea that players who leave the field due to injury cannot return to play for 5 minutes. That’s something these secretive bastards should consider next year.
Posted from United States
The “sin-bin”- it’s already a par of the game in high school soccer(from what I’ve seen). It’s only for 2 mins and it doesn’t seem to interrupt the game very much.
I don’t like the idea of it in the professional leagues 
Posted from United States
the penalty box is a terrible idea.
is this the group that eliminated the golden goal too?
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The sin bin? Is that the official name? I hope not, its hard enought to sell football in the united states. That’s just not appropriate for the sport.