GFA introduce sin bins

Friday 26 July 2019

All competitions sanctioned by the Guernsey Football Association will have new temporary dismissal rules, starting from next month.

It means from the start of the 2019/20 season, all cautions for dissent must be dealt with via a sin bin process, whereas cautions for all other offences such as unsporting behaviour and persistent infringement will remain unaffected.

"The FA opted to conduct a pilot on the use of sin bins for Dissent offences only in order to support the RESPECT programme," Guernsey FA CEO Gary Roberts explained. "Temporary Dismissals were first trialled across 31 leagues in the country during the 2017/18 season."

A survey following the trial found:

• A 38% reduction in dissent offences across all leagues
• 72% of players wanted to continue with sin bins
• 77% of managers/coaches wanted to continue with sin bins
• 84% of referees wanted to continue with sin bins

Mr Roberts said: "Following the results of the survey it was determined that the trial would continue with an additional 61 leagues for the 2018/19 season before coming mandatory for all leagues at Step 7 and below for the 2019/20 season."

As a result, the changes will come into effect locally next month. 

Sin bins are a more familiar concept in rugby and have only recently been trialled in football. 

The Matchday Process

Who? Sin bins will only apply to those on the field of play, not to substitutes and coaching staff.

How? The referee will take the name of the offending player, a  yellow card will be issued and shown and the referee will point to the touchline where the player must go (there will be no specific sin bin area).

Time? Sin bins will last for 10 minutes in 90 minute matches and 8 minutes in all others. The sin bin period only commences when the referee restarts play and the referee will include any lost time (i.e injury delay). Referee is the sole arbitrator of time as to when the player can return. 

Offending Player? Is defined as being in the sin bin from the moment they are cautioned for dissent, must be in the sin bin for active playing tie (can start in the first half and end in the second) and cannot be substituted until the sin bin period has expired. However, a player who has been sin binned can still take part in a penalty shootout. 

Any player who has been temporarily dismissed and commits a further yellow or red card offence whilst in the Sin Bin cannot take any further part in the game and cannot be substituted.

How repeat offenders will be sanctioned

If a temporarily dismissed player:

• Commits another Yellow Card offence or Red Card offence during the sin bin period, they cannot take any further part in the game and cannot be substituted

• Commits a non-dissent caution at any time on the field of play, in addition to the sin bin period, they will continue to play

• Commits a second dissent caution (and no other offences), they will be sent to the sin bin a second time. At the end of that period, the player can take no further part in the game but can be substituted, providing that the team concerned has not used all of their permitted substitutes

• Commits a second dissent offence and has already had a non-dissent caution, they will take no further part in the game and cannot be substituted