A new 'blue card' is being introduced as part of football's 10-minute sin bin trials.
The International Football Association Board (IFAB) will publish the detailed protocols on Friday as football tries to tackle abuse towards match officials and cynical fouls.
The blue cards will be part of the sin bin trial and are intended to give referees more protection. They could be tested by the Football Association (FA) during next year's Men's and Women's FA Cups.
The Athletics understands, however, that they will not be used for next season's Premier League.
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Dissent bins already exist in amateur and youth football in England and Wales, but referees use yellow rather than blue cards. IFAB first agreed to test it higher up the football pyramid in November.
IFAB will greenlight the trial at higher levels of the game at their next annual general meeting in Loch Lomond, Scotland, on March 2.
Other items on that agenda include trying 'cooling-off periods' after flare-ups between players, penalizing time-wasting goalkeepers by awarding a corner kick and only allowing a team's captain to approach the referee.
IFAB consists of the four British associations, which each have one vote, and FIFA, which has four.
At least six votes are required for each decision.
On Thursday, FIFA reiterated that while the issue will be discussed at the IFAB AGM in March, there are no immediate plans to introduce it into elite football.
“FIFA would like to make it clear that reports about the so-called 'blue card' at top level in football are incorrect and premature,” the international football governing body said in a statement.
“Such trials, if conducted, should be limited to testing in a responsible manner at lower levels, a position that FIFA intends to reiterate when this agenda item is discussed at the IFAB AGM on March 2.”
Chiellini's foul on Saka has been used as an example of tactical errors (LAURENCE GRIFFITHS/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
Sin bins: how do they work in basic football?
By Adam Leventhal
The FA introduced sin bins as punishment for dissent at all levels of grassroots football in the 2019-2020 season, following a pilot in 31 competitions during the previous two terms. According to FA figures, these trials resulted in a 38 percent reduction in disagreements across the competitions, with 72 percent of players, 77 percent of managers and 84 percent of referees wanting to go ahead with the change.
How does it all work?
Sins are indicated by the referee showing a yellow card and pointing to the sideline with both arms.
In a 90-minute match, players guilty of dissent were sentenced to sin for ten minutes – and eight minutes in shorter matches.
There is no physical sin bin; the player must either go to his team's technical area or leave the field and watch from the sidelines with other non-playing personnel.
Just like a player who has left the field for injury treatment, a player can be waved back onto the field of play by the referee during play.
A second temporary suspension in a match results in the offending player being excluded for a further 10 minutes, after which he may no longer participate in the match, but may be substituted if the team has any substitutions left.
The FA's grassroots guide to sin bins states that goalkeepers are subject to the same law as other players and can be sentenced to sin. The guide says: “Just like when a goalkeeper is sent off, every other player must go into goal, but the team must remain with ten players. On return, during the game, the goalkeeper can become a field player and then become a goalkeeper again during the next stoppage of play.”
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Blue Card Plan: Did Sin Bins Work in Trials? Would they succeed at the highest level?
(Oli Scarff/AFP via Getty Images)