But used improperly, and it can lead to dire consequences. The player who tactically fouls his opponent leading a breakaway being awarded a yellow can send a warning. Handing just a yellow to Ryan Shawcross for a potentially leg breaking tackle is a recipe for disaster.
Football though, is outgrowing the current system of punishment; the verbal warning, the final warning, a yellow card, a red card. Sometimes there are tackles which seem more than worth a yellow but not a red. There are also those niggly fouls which the likes of Darren Fletcher or Alex Song specialise in, which break up the play, are not dangerous and do not stop goalscoring opportunities. But they do give their team an advantage within the rules through foul play.
So surely it is time to introduce a kind of sin bin. The solution sounds so simple, and it is. It will give a referee a tool which is more effective than a yellow, which most players are quite happy to get if it means preventing an opponent having a potential goalscoring opportunity.
It is also a good idea for those referees looking to keep 11 men on the pitch in a local derby, but who is confronted by the dilemma of an early Joey Barton style lunge usually worthy of a red. It gives another way of dealing with such issues. And in such cases as the ludicrous red card given to Jack Rodwell this weekend, it could help too. Referees are not sure, but when in doubt in such situations, they can go for the sin bin option. In Everton’s case, they would have had the player back by half time, and may not have lost to Liverpool.
It has to be time to bring in this new punishment. Tactical fouls have been around for far too long, and we need to challenge them two. These come in the form described above, or a more advanced method used by Stoke City. Stoke seem to use rotational fouling, to anyone who watches them very closely. They will get one player each to take it in turns fouling a particular player, or just breaking up the play against superior teams. It is entirely illegal, as it involves fouling, but the deterrent, a verbal warning or worst of all, the yellow card, is not sufficient to prevent them doing it.
This summer, England saw riots across the country. The reason for these riots was because after initially getting away with it in Tottenham, youngsters saw that they would not be punished effectively, and so they swamped the streets to cause mayhem. The footballing equivalent takes place every week. Stoke players in particular are guilty of committing reckless challenges frequently, but once one player gets away with it, they know everyone can, and so it persists. It gets worse, and they adopt rotational fouling.
Referees need new tools for these new techniques and tactics, which we must remember are illegal. Commentators treat them as part of the game. They are not. A niggly foul is still a foul – i.e. illegal, outlawed from the game. But referees will not be able to get rid of them without appropriate deterrents. New rules, such as forcing a team to take off one of their players, thus reducing them to 10 men, if they receive more than 5 yellow cards, would be far more effective than the current paltry £30,000 fine they are likely to receive. Similarly, you could have a rule which says that once a team has received three yellow cards, for each additional yellow, they have to play five minutes with a man less, another form of sin bin.
Such reforms would be revolutionary, and help the game. They will enable referees to better manage matches, to ensure that they are played in the best spirit, and most of all, that they can keep 11 men on both teams without being overly lenient with foul play. Football is in danger of losing all control if it fails to adopt appropriate deterrents for such play. Now is the time to act.
