Uefa president Michel Platini has called for football to emulate rugby by implementing a sin-bin system for yellow-card offences.
At present players who accumulate a number of cautions — typically five — are handed a ban, but Platini says that system only benefits teams who were not the victims of the earlier offences. Instead, the former France international believes a more instataneous sanction is required, which would benefit the team against whom the offence has been committed.
“I would change the system of warnings,” Platini told Spanish newspaper AS. “I would make it like rugby, punishing the offender with 10 or 15 minutes out of the game. That way, the benefit goes to the team he is playing against, in the same match, instead of a sanction by cards which is carried out against a third team, the next on the calendar.
“It is an idea. Now it needs to mature and see if it really is good for the game. It is a proposal to be explored.”
Platini also called for goalkeepers who commit penalties not to be further punished with red cards.
"It seems excessive," he said. "The penalty is itself already a punishment enough. "I think it's something that everyone in Fifa and Uefa agree on, but one or two of the countries that make up the International Board are unwilling to change."