Yellow & Red Cards

The yellow card is a formal caution. It is recorded; two in the same match means a red card and dismissal.

The red card is a dismissal. The player must immediately leave the field; the team plays the rest of the match a man down.

In Laws of the Game, a caution is the formal disciplinary action communicated via the yellow card.

A sending-off is dismissal from the field. The person must leave and may not be replaced; communicated by red card.

Two cautions (yellow cards) in the same match always combine into a red card and a sending-off.

Simulation is faking injury or a foul to deceive the referee. It is a yellow-card offence under unsporting behaviour.

A sin bin is a timed period off the field, used in some competitions for certain cautionable offences, after which the player returns.

Unsporting behaviour is a broad caution category in Law 12. It covers simulation, removing the shirt, deception tricks, climbing fences, provocative/derisive behaviour, and more.

Persistent infringement is a pattern of repeated fouls — there's no fixed number; it's a referee's judgement.

Denying an obvious goal-scoring opportunity is typically a sending-off (red card) offence.

Law 12 lists 7 sending-off categories: DOGSO, denying goal/DOGSO by handball, serious foul play, violent conduct, biting/spitting, offensive language/gestures, and second caution.

A lone yellow is a caution; a second one in a match is a red; enough cautions across a competition trigger a ban; a red card needs no accumulation.

IFAB's sin bin guideline is roughly 10-15% of the match length — about 10 minutes in a 90-minute game.

IFAB recommends 10-15% of total playing time — e.g. 10 minutes in a 90-minute match, 8 minutes in an 80-minute match.

Cards were introduced for the 1970 World Cup in Mexico, after Ken Aston's idea following the 1966 Wembley England-Argentina match.

Since 2019, coaches and team officials can receive cards. Two yellows = red, same as players.

Suspension thresholds vary by competition. Premier League: 5 yellow cards by a certain matchday. Champions League: 3 yellows. Always defined by competition rules.

In the Premier League, accumulating 5 yellow cards by Match 19 triggers a one-match suspension. Different windows apply later in the season.

Since the 2025/26 Laws, a goalkeeper holding the ball more than 8 seconds gives away a corner kick.

Two yellow cards on a coach in the same match = red card. The coach must leave the technical area.

Cards are issued solely by the referee. VAR may advise on direct red cards, but the on-field decision is the referee's.

VAR's reviewable categories cover goals, penalties, direct red cards and mistaken identity — not yellow cards.

VAR can only review direct red card decisions. Second yellow cards (which result in red) are not eligible for VAR review.

Since 2019, cards apply to players, substitutes, substituted players, AND team officials (coaches, medical staff, etc.).

Coaches' cards are issued by the referee, often via the fourth official's report. Two yellows on a coach = red.

The referee is the primary recorder. The fourth official often keeps a parallel record and helps confirm details.

Sin bins are used only in approved competitions (youth, veterans, disability, grassroots). The referee administers them by showing yellow + pointing both arms to the dismissal area.

The referee makes the unsporting behaviour judgement, applying Law 12's broad list of cautionable categories.

A referee's authority to caution or send off runs from the pre-match inspection through to leaving the field after the match.

A player who has just been substituted off can still be shown a card by the referee — leaving the field does not remove them from disciplinary reach.

Dissent — protesting a decision by word or action — is a cautionable (yellow card) offence.

Removing the shirt or covering the head with the shirt during goal celebration is a mandatory yellow card under unsporting behaviour.

Leaving the field to celebrate is NOT cautionable. However, climbing perimeter fences or approaching spectators in a dangerous manner IS cautionable.

Climbing onto a perimeter fence and/or approaching spectators in a way causing safety/security issues = mandatory yellow card.

Biting or spitting at anyone is always a direct red card, regardless of visible injury.

A coach leaving the technical area to confront the referee is a sending-off (red card) offence.

Covering the head/face with a mask or similar item during celebration is a mandatory yellow card under unsporting behaviour.

Minor or low-level disagreement is just a warning. Dissent (overt protest) is yellow; leaving area to confront officials is red.

Simulation (faking injury or a foul to deceive) is a yellow card offence.

Using offensive, insulting, or abusive language and/or gestures is one of the 7 sending-off categories.

A sent-off player must leave the field; their team plays the rest of the match a man down. The player CANNOT be replaced.

When a goalkeeper is sent off, a teammate typically takes over in goal, usually via a substitution for an outfield player.

Suspensions vary: simple red card = 1 match. Violent conduct = 3+ matches. Serious cases (e.g., spitting, biting) can be 6-10+ matches.

A single yellow doesn't ban the player from the next match. But accumulating a threshold (e.g., 5 in PL) triggers a one-match suspension.

A coach with a red card must leave the technical area. The team plays at full strength. Subsequent disciplinary action depends on the competition.

A card for an offence during advantage is not cancelled — it is simply shown once play is next stopped.

A direct sending-off offence results in a direct red. The yellow already shown is independent.

Sin bin = the player is off the field for the duration. Team plays without them. They may not be substituted during that time.

A sending-off offence committed during a sin-bin period ends the player's involvement in the match entirely, with no replacement.

Persistent infringement can apply to a player who commits the last in a series of fouls — even if multiple teammates contributed to the pattern.

Ken Aston, an English referee, came up with the idea after the 1966 Wembley England-Argentina match where players didn't understand they had been booked.

Aston was driving through London traffic when the analogy struck him — yellow for caution, red for stop. He proposed the system to FIFA.

Cards were introduced at the 1970 World Cup in Mexico, two World Cups after the Wembley incident that inspired Aston.

At the 1970 Mexico World Cup, no players received a red card — only yellows. The system existed but wasn't escalated.

Disciplinary power in the Laws (1881) predates the visible cards themselves (1970); the two-yellows-equal-red rule (1992) and cards for officials (2019) came later still.

Cautioning and sending off as a referee power has been in the Laws since 1881, well before cards were used to communicate them.

In 2019, IFAB approved yellow and red cards for team officials. Two yellows on a coach = red, just like players.

Sin bins were approved by IFAB in 2017, after the two-yellows rule (1992) but before cards for team officials (2019).

The 1966 World Cup quarter-final between England and Argentina at Wembley is what inspired Ken Aston to invent the card system.

In 2019, IFAB extended cards (and the cautionable/sending-off categories) to team officials.

Removing the shirt during celebration is a mandatory yellow — the rule applies even if the goal is subsequently disallowed.

Cards are issued at the next stoppage regardless of whether advantage led to anything. Discipline is independent of play.

If the match ends during the sin bin period, the dismissal is considered served. Whether further sanction applies depends on competition rules.

A referee can rescind a mistaken card only while the match is still in progress — not afterwards, which needs a competition process instead.

VAR can catch a missed clear sending-off offence and advise the referee, who can then still issue the red card.

A sent-off player cannot be 'sent off' again. Subsequent misconduct may add suspension days but not on-pitch consequences.

A referee's authority already applies before kick-off, so they can prevent the offending player from taking part and report the misconduct.

Cards apply during the penalty shootout. Their disciplinary effect carries over per competition rules.

Substitutes can be cautioned. The card is recorded; entry is still permitted unless they were sent off.

Covering the head or face with a mask is a mandatory yellow card. (Carlos Tevez was cautioned for this in a celebration in 2018.)

Second yellow = two cautionable offences in same match. Direct red = single offence severe enough to send off (e.g., violent conduct).

Both are cautions. Two yellows = red for both, but the consequences differ in scope (technical area vs field).

Excessive contact while genuinely challenging for the ball is 'serious foul play'; the same force away from a challenge for the ball is 'violent conduct'.

VAR's authority depends entirely on the card type: direct reds are reviewable, yellows of any kind are not.

Yellow cards stay on the pitch (just recorded). Sin bins involve actual time off the field. Used in different contexts (sin bins only in approved competitions).

Rugby has had sin bins for yellow cards at all levels for decades — football has only youth/grassroots sin bins. Both use the same colour-coding.

Disciplinary effect is identical. Practically, a sent-off goalkeeper usually gets replaced by a substitute keeper (an outfielder is sacrificed).

The visible card system, introduced in 1970, replaced a purely verbal system that could easily be missed by players and spectators alike.

Pre-2019, coaches could be sent away ('dismissed') from the technical area but not formally carded. The 2019 change formalised the card system.

Shirt removal is an automatic, mandatory yellow card. The referee has no discretion. Other yellows have discretion.

Mandatory yellow for shirt removal during celebration.

Kicking the ball away after a stoppage is a delaying tactic — yellow card.

Tackle with excessive force endangering safety = serious foul play = direct red card.

A second cautionable offence in the same match, no matter how it happens, always produces a red card via the second-yellow rule.

Leaving the technical area to dissent towards a referee is a sending-off (red card) for the coach.

Simulation to deceive the referee is a yellow card under unsporting behaviour.

Deliberate handball that denies a clear goal-scoring opportunity is a red-card offence, on top of the resulting penalty kick.

A genuine attempt to play the ball, even if it fouls and denies a chance, is mitigated to a yellow card rather than a red.

Covering the head/face with a mask is a mandatory yellow card.

Delaying leaving the field when being substituted is a cautionable offence (delaying the restart).

Two cautions in the same match always combine into a red card, regardless of how different the two offences are.

Cards debuted at the 1970 Mexico World Cup, devised by Ken Aston.

Law 12 lists 7 categories of sending-off offences.

Mandatory yellow card for unsporting behaviour.

VAR's reviewable categories: goals, penalties, direct red cards, mistaken identity. Yellow cards are not reviewable.

Coach/team-official cards were approved in 2019.

IFAB's sin bin guideline is roughly 10 minutes in a 90-minute match.

The red card = sending-off and dismissal from the field.

Ken Aston devised the system after the 1966 Wembley match.

A sent-off player leaves immediately and cannot be replaced — their team plays the rest of the match a player short.