Football Federation Australia (FFA) will continue to be a pioneer of World Football with the introduction of Yellow cards (YC) and Red cards (RC) for Coaches and other team officials.
The trial is aimed at improving the behaviour of team officials primarily towards match officials but also opposition team officials whilst in the technical area.
The Hyundai A-League and Westfield W-League will be the first top-tier domestic competitions in the world to receive approval from the International Football Advisory Board (IFAB) to conduct the experimental trial which will commence from this weekend (Round 5 of the Hyundai A League and Round 2 of the Westfield W League commencing Friday 3rd November 2017) and also from the opening round of the Foxtel Y-League.
The Head of the Hyundai A-League and Westfield W-League, Greg O’Rourke, believes this trial will be a positive move for the game.
“Referees already have a process which is by way of conversation to Coaches to warn them before removing them from the technical area after poor behaviour. Essentially, this trial will visualise those steps and as such better communicate to fans that the Referees are giving the coaches and others formal warnings.” said O’Rourke.
“It will help fans and viewers better understand the issues that match officials face on a weekly basis and help promote respect towards them. Importantly it will send a strong message throughout the game at grassroots level that poor behaviour towards match officials and opposition team officials is unacceptable and carries consequences.”
“In addition, we have also updated our regulations so this consequence of accumulating yellow cards for team officials will be in line with the same regulations for players and will lead to Coaches and other team officials being required to miss games when the accumulation reaches the thresholds.”
“The ideal outcome of the trial is to improve behaviour from within the technical area towards match officials and also between team benches,” concluded O’Rourke.
This experimental trial is part of IFAB’s global “Play Fair” initiative which aims to make football fairer, more attractive and more enjoyable, promoting players and officials as positive role models for society.
