Sting wrote:
I think managed properly the blue card would be a good thing.
A Man City player (or any other team) performs a tactical foul in a crucial game against say Liverpool. Currently the player gets a yellow and City are not really penalised and Liverpool have no advantage. The yellow cards tot up and eventually that player misses a game against a different team but City are still able to play with a full team. With the blue card, the punishment is instant and City then have to play Liverpool for 10 mins with 10 men so they are penalised and Liverpool have an advantage. You never know, it might even cut down the number of these fouls and the harassing of refs.
My main concern with it would be the amount of time wasting that the penalised team would do in that 10 mins that they are down a man. This would need to be managed a lot better than it is now.
My solution, also controversial, would be to take the time keeping off the ref and have it done by another official. Stop the watch every time the ball is out of play and reduce the game to two halves of 30 mins. The ball is rarely in play for 60 mins anyway. No team would have any reason to time waste and free kicks, throw ins etc may not take a couple of mins each time.
They would!
They'd still have two of the same three reasons they do it now. It's not just to waste time. It's also to break up momentum - if the attacking team are building up a head of steam and the defending team rocking a little; And, continuation of that really, to help them get a breather and recover before going again, and to get defensively back into organised positions, etc. There's more to the dark arts of slow play than just time wasting, and winning teams will always see a benefit to slowing the game down rather than letting it be as fast and open as possible.