Dubai: Uefa President Michel Platini on Sunday insisted he would press ahead with his plan to introduce temporary sending offs in football while speaking on the opening day of the Dubai International Sports Conference at Atlantis, The Palm.
Frenchman Platini — one of the most powerful men in the sport as head of the European governing body and a member of Fifa’s Executive Committee — hopes the proposed sin-bins, which he first floated in October, would help promote fair play.
While yellow cards act as a warning and red cards see players immediately expelled from the game, the 59-year-old believes introducing a white card for temporary dismissals — which are successfully used in other sports like rugby and ice hockey — could clean up football’s image and clamp down on more minor breaches of respect.
“I am in favour of temporary sending offs for players who criticise the referee,” Platini said. “We will test this at youth championships.
“Maybe it will be interesting to create a white card like in rugby, where if someone is not behaving properly the white card will see players sent off for a few minutes.”
Platini was addressing the audience alongside Uefa’s chief refereeing officer Pierluigi Collina and both agreed on the need for changes in a bid to bring respect back into the game.
“Football is not only about a few professional players,” Platini said. “It is about millions of children playing. The future of football is important for the development of society and, everything we can do, we must do it. Children want to play and develop, all of us are responsible.
“The future of football must combine conservatism and audacity, passion and reason. Football is the most beautiful game in the world.
“For those who don’t love football, it is related to the behaviour of the players. Like play-acting, bad behaviour and criticism of the referee. These things are not accepted by people who do not love football.
“We don’t want to change this sport too much,” he added. “We just have to change some of the bad aspects. We must keep the beauty of the sport.”
Legendary Italian official Collina also suggested the need for two referees to be on the pitch instead of just one in order to help improve standards.
“Having two referees can improve the whole game,” he said. “In the penalty area, there can be many different episodes where a second referee can give a good contribution.”
He also suggested the relaxing of totting-up rules that take into account a player’s earlier indiscretions in the build-up to a booking.
“We should focus on the rules that punish players for three different fouls, which lead to a sending off or penalty kick. It is too penalising as a rule,” he added.
“We do not want to punish too much. Sometimes, there is honesty involved in committing fouls.”
