FIFA president Infantino shows the red card to blue cards
FIFA president Gianni Infantino has emphatically ruled out the prospect of blue cards playing any part in a future sin bin trial.
The cards were set to be the signal which would be used by referees to show that a player had been temporarily dismissed in sin bin trial protocols which were due for publication on February 9 and had been signed off at a board meeting of the game's lawmaking body, the International Football Association Board, earlier that week.
However, when reports about blue cards circulated on February 8 they received a largely negative reaction and the IFAB pulled the plug on the day scheduled for publication, citing the need for further talks at the organisation's annual general meeting this weekend.
On the eve of Saturdays meeting in Loch Lomond, Infantino said: "There will not be any blue cards used at elite level. This is a topic that is non-existent for us.
"FIFA is completely opposed to blue cards. I was not aware of this topic. I'm the president of FIFA and I think FIFA has a say in the IFAB. So, I don't know if you want the title, 'It's red card to the blue card'!
"Every proposal and every idea has to be treated with respect, of course. But, once you look at it, you also have to protect the game, the essence of the game, the tradition of the game and there is no blue card."
The introduction of a blue card at the level initially envisaged in the trial would have been the biggest single change in the management of player discipline since the introduction of red and yellow cards at the 1970 World Cup.
It is understood the trial itself will continue to be developed but it is expected it will now take place at a much lower footballing level than was anticipated by the original February 9 protocol, which was set to encourage applications from all but the very top-level competitions.
The Football Association, one of the five bodies which makes up the IFAB, had been understood to have been interested in running a trial in the men's and women's FA Cups in the future, before the furore around blue cards.
