What is a blue card? The huge change that will impact Man Utd, Arsenal, Liverpool and others

The International Football Association Board (IFAB) are set to introduce a blue card to join the yellow and red punishments given by referees in the UK and across world football.

IFAB is the footballing body responsible for the laws of the game and has approved trials of a blue card to place players who have committed certain offences in a sin-bin. The change is set to impact the Premier League, Championship and all competitions in years to come but will first go through a period of testing to analyse the impact on the sport.

The Telegraph reports that referees will award a blue card to any player who shows dissent to an official or commits a cynical foul. The offending player will then spend ten minutes on the sideline in the 'sin-bin' before being allowed to return to the field of play.

Blue cards could be trialled in FA Cup matches

Should a player receive two blue cards in a match, or a combination of a blue card and yellow card, they will then be sent off - just as they would when two yellow cards result in a red card.

Football fans in the UK look likely to first see the cards introduced in the FA Cup and Women's FA Cup next season with the FA considering volunteering the domestic competitions as trial run events for the IFAB to use.

One key example used by IFAB, which will be familiar to England fans, is that of Giorgio Chiellini's shirt pull on Bukayo Saka in the Euro 2020 final. That cynical challenge would meet the requirements to receive a blue card and a ten-minute sin bin under new measures.

UEFA label blue cards as 'not football'

UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin has confirmed that the sin-bin rule will not be used at Euro 2024 this summer or in the Champions League next year. Mr Ceferin also poured scorn on the IFAB idea and said: "It's not football anymore."

The European footballing body could still be forced to accept the blue card change in the near future if the trials are successful and the idea is added to the laws of the sport.

The blue card has already been successfully trialled in amateur and youth football matches in England and Wales. The colour blue has been chosen to clearly differentiate from a yellow or red card. The Football Association of Wales had planned to use the blue card during a trial in grassroots competitions this season but failed to obtain clearance - players have still been sent to the sin-bin but with a yellow card instead.

Sin bins hope to stamp out dissent

FA Chief Executive Mark Bullingham is on the IFAB board, which first agreed to test the sin-bin format in November. The move is inspired by the success of other sports such as rugby and aims to tackle dissent, as well as cynical fouls.

The Premier League and EFL have already cracked down on dissent this season. The threshold for a player to be shown a yellow card for dissent was reduced at the start of the campaign. Now, whenever more than one player approaches the referee, at least one of those players will be shown a yellow card. Any player who runs from a distance to confront a referee can also receive a yellow card.

Former Premier League referee Dermot Gallagher told Sky Sports: "We have to have people behaving better. Everybody would agree it went too far last season. The one thing that was very evident was the amount of crowding the referees. It reached a high.

"It's not about more yellow and red cards, it's about sending out a message that we don't want to do that so the only way to avoid it is to back off. It will be short-term pain for long-term gain. We don't want to see players in the stands suspended but if it has to be, it has to be."

In its report, The Telegraph also reports that IFAB has also approved a global trial of another rule inspired by rugby union that would see only team captains allowed to speak to the match referee about a decision.