What is a blue card in soccer? IFAB delays announcement on controversial sin-bin rule

Changes to football’s laws have been a frequent source of controversy and debate over recent years, especially in the VAR era.

"Armpit offsides" and disagreements over what might, or might, not be considered handball depending on the competition in question are conversations fans would never have expected a decade ago.

The International Football Association Board (IFAB) is the sport's global rulemaking body and had been primed for a major announcement on February 9. Now, a hostile reaction appears to have caused a rethink.

But what is a blue card, and is football ready to bring in sin bins? After a volatile period, is another seismic change to how the game operates really in anyone's interests?

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A report by Telegraph Sport on February 8 revealed IFAB was planning to introduce sin-bin trials.

Football already has red cards to dismiss players from the rest of the game and yellow cards or cautions for less serious offences. If a player accrues two yellow cards, they are also sent off.

The IFAB proposal focuses on certain offences — namely cynical, tactical fouls or dissent towards match officials — that might be deemed to be at the more serious end of the spectrum when it comes to yellow card transgressions but not serious enough for a straight red card.

Such instances have sometimes been referred to colloquially as "orange card" offences. Under the IFAB plans, a player would be shown a blue card and removed from the field for 10 minutes.

A reason for the colour choice is that blue can be clearly differentiated from yellow and red. It would be the first new card introduced to football since red and yellow cards were adopted for