(Dan Tri) – Former Premier League referee Mark Halsey opposes the idea of applying green cards to kick players off the field for 10 minutes as proposed by the International Football Association Board (IFAB) to FIFA.
`Who will still enjoy an interesting match when it is decided by green cards? Imagine watching a match with 9 players playing against 7 players, it will make the match ridiculous,` referee Mark
Accordingly, in addition to yellow cards and red cards according to current FIFA regulations, future matches will allow the referee to issue a green card to expel a player in just 10 minutes.
This penalty will take effect if a player commits a foul or shows disagreement with the match referee, linesman or third official.
IFAB’s idea of applying green cards faced strong opposition from football experts (Photo: The Sun).
Similar to yellow cards, the new regulations will consider two green cards as equivalent to one red card, or any player who is given a yellow card and a green card will also be disqualified as if they received a direct red card.
IFAB’s proposal immediately received many objections from football experts, including referee Mark Halsey, who has officiated many important matches in the Premier League.
`I want to know what the full protocol of the green card will be because I have a lot of doubts. First, I don’t see a difference between the current yellow card and this new green card?
The yellow card was used as a warning to the players that further punishment would result if they continued to misbehave.
We don’t need green cards if the referees control the game properly in its current form.
I have never had to show many yellow cards for dissent throughout my career because one of the main jobs of a referee is to control and manage the players on the field.
And I had to manage people like Craig Bellamy, Roy Keane, Alan Shearer, John Terry, Danny Murphy, Gary Neville and Steven Gerrard, who all had big personalities and weren’t afraid to tell me what they thought about decisions.
Giving a green card clearly only tells the referees that they have lost the art of player management.
Referee Mark Halsey used to manage hot heads on the field like Roy Keane and Steven Gerrard but never felt shy (Photo: Getty).
The 62-year-old referee also said that tactical errors or ethical violations are not regulated in the rules of the game, so why change it by applying something as trivial as a green card.
`Referees now have enough to do without sending players off the field for 10 minutes. We are over-complicating football and will only confuse more people.
It’s a simple game that’s being made difficult by others.
Football has existed for many years but IFAB is constantly trying to sabotage our sport.
