MILLWALL boss Joe Edwards has revealed he’s not a fan of sin bins and blue cards becoming a feature in football.
Reports over the last few days have suggested the football governing body Ifab – International Football Association Board – are set to announce plans to introduce the sweeping changes on a trial basis in some competitions in the professional game.
It is not yet clear when the trial might start or which competitions it could include.
Rugby-style sin bins for footballers who commit cynical fouls or show dissent to officials would see the guilty party head off the pitch for 10 minutes before returning.
The referee would show them a blue card to signal the punishment, which would be the biggest rule change to football since the introduction of video technology.
“If I’m honest, I heard about it this morning and since then I’ve had training to worry about and had to prepare for my online press conference so I’ve not lost too much sleep over it,” Edwards said with a grin during his pre-match press conference.
“My gut feeling is it probably doesn’t need tweaking. We made a lot of advances and changes to the game over the years and rightly so because you have to move forward with things.
“But for me, for now, that could be a step too far. I think in terms of the system we have in place at the moment, I think it’s working well enough.”
Edwards, who was formerly a first-team coach at Everton and Chelsea, has also previously suggested that he has reservations over VAR, another hot topic in the world of officiating.
Speaking in December, he said of video assistant referees: “I have a few years experience with it in the Premier League and now I’m working in a league without it, I prefer it without it to be honest.”