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Initially it remains with the yellow and red cards

Photo: Jens Wolf / dpa

The blue card in professional football will not come for now, as the International Football Association Board (Ifab) announced after its annual general meeting in Glasgow.

However, it should be further examined whether it could be a suitable instrument.

According to media reports, the blue card should have served as a sign of a time penalty and as an intermediate step between a yellow and red card.

However, Gianni Infantino, President of FIFA, the world football association, categorically rejected the new map.

"The topic doesn't exist for us," he told reporters before the Ifab meeting.

"If you want a headline, it's 'Red card for the blue card.'" Fifa has four out of eight votes in the Ifab and therefore has the option to block it.

Liverpool coach Jürgen Klopp had previously expressed doubts about the blue card and feared new debates after controversial decisions.

"Imagine if the referee had had the blue card at his disposal," he said after a Premier League game at the beginning of February, "that would have been the Wild West."

What the Ifab decided to do instead

Mattias Grafström, Fifa's interim secretary general and new chairman of the Ifab board of directors, announced three other rule test runs:

  • After heated situations or pack formations, the referees can send both teams to their own penalty area to “cool down”.

  • In difficult situations, only the captains are allowed to speak to the referee after a corresponding signal - otherwise there are personal penalties, at least a yellow card.

  • In the future, goalkeepers will be allowed to hold the ball in their hands for eight seconds before teeing off, but under no circumstances longer.

    In a timed game, the opponent gets the ball.

FIFA wants to try out these rules at the Olympic football tournament in Paris this summer.

The changes cannot be permanently incorporated into the regulations until summer 2025 at the earliest.

It is not yet known whether the German Football Association will take part in the test runs.

That would be possible in the third league.

Another reform: In the future, coaches will be able to replace players with a concussion, even if the replacement quota has been fulfilled.

However, Ifab leaves it up to the organizers of the competitions to make use of this rule.

mlb/dpa/sid/Reuters