Former French international and current UEFA overlord Michel Platini has called for the introduction of a sinbin or a 'white card' into football to punish players for diving or back talking to referees.
Platini, fresh from being confirmed as the only candidate to stand in UEFA's presidential elections next year was speaking at the Dubai International Sports Conference today where he outlined where he wanted the game to go in the coming year with the thinking being to “combine conservatism and audacity”, a wonderfully constructed phrase that means nothing but probably took half a dozen UEFA minions half the night to think of.
Speaking about the issue of diving and treatment of referees, Platini looked to rugby for the answer:
“There will still be yellow cards, but by creating another card, like there is in rugby, it could help the game grow among casual fans.”
Platini also spoke about the need to curb the influence of technology in the game, recognising that it helps is certain situations but saying it cannot be used for every situation:
“We know that shirt tugging happens and TV doesn’t give the certainty of a foul. It’s about interpretation. It is much easier to use technology for goallines or offside, but when we talk about fouls, technology can’t be very helpful.”
So technology can't be helpful for fouls, would it be helpful for deciding sin bins?
Via The National
Pic: SPORTSFILE
