What in the world is going on at the governing bodies of the beautiful game? The introduction of blue cards would constitute a 10 minute misconduct where the player would be sent to the technical area to serve their time. This is absolute madness to me and will only make the game more convoluted.

In it’s present moment, the game of football is at a crossroads in terms of the rules. Over the past few years, there has been the introduction of VAR and the additional time added for stoppages. Both have been an absolute shambles.

VAR has added unnecessary stoppages to a once fluid game and the decisions are usually debatable. The objective was to support the decision making process of the referee in these match-changing situations: goals and offences leading up to a goal. Offences leading up to a penalty decision. Direct red card incidents only. The result has been confusion amongst all match officials including the referee and fans, players and coaches alike. My opinion is that VAR should only be used for red card offences. We already have goal line technology which should be expanded to in and out of play technology. Newcastle vs. Arsenal cough cough

The additional stoppage time added has also been a bit of a farce. Every time there is a stoppage in play, additional time is added. This has sometimes amounted to 10+ minutes being added at the end of halves at times. The purpose was to stop time-wasting etc. but why not just continue giving yellow cards? Another questionable decision my the governing bodies and adding a significant load on players that already have too many games.

That brings me to my last point. The blue card sin-bin nonsense. Listen, I’m not a fan of players showing dissent to referees in an offensive way but they do have a right to question decisions. Football isn’t a dictatorship and everyone should be held accountable. Thinking that a blue card is going to stop dissent is nonsense. It’s like sending a kid to the corner and expecting them to behave after. Old school thinking in a new school world. Referees should be trained on people management and communication in addition to the laws of the game to have honest dialogue on the pitch with players. Pierluigi Collina was brilliant at it.

All of these rules changes in such a short span of time are bringing the game into disrepute and is only going to cause further angst to all involved. Imagine … a player having to play 10 minutes extra time at the end of 90 minutes of an exhausting match. The mental exhaustion will spill over and inevitably end up in some form of offence; whether it be dissent or a cynical foul which then ends up in a blue card - which then ends up in further frustration and the spiral continues.

IT’S A VICIOUS CYCLE and a very slippery slope that football is treading.