The International Football Association Board, the body which determines the rules of the game, yesterday agreed reforms which will grant it greater freedom to experiment with proposed changes to the game's laws.
The prospect of introducing sin bins has been discussed by some national associations and was piloted in Dutch youth football recently.
While IFAB has expressed its determination to remain cautious about implementing such changes, it has at least now gained the power to test new schemes. "This new IFAB will allow pilots like the Dutch sin bin idea to be initiated . . . and the results fed back for IFAB to consider," said Stewart Regan, the chief executive of the Scottish Football Association. The SFA is a founding member of IFAB.
There is resistence to the idea of implementing video replays during matches, though. "I wonder if it be nice to watch a match with three commercial breaks?" said Jerome Valcke, FIFA's secretary general.
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