# Yellow & Red Cards · Football Level 2: Elementary

Football · Level 2: Elementary · Insporta Book (https://book.insporta.app/football/level-2/yellow-red-cards/)

Yellow & Red Cards in Football (Level 2: Elementary) on Insporta: 100 sourced facts behind 10 tests. Covers: definitions; numbers and counts; and more.

Cautionable vs sending-off offences; the 7 sending-off categories; accumulation and second yellow card; sin bins (youth/grassroots); coach/team-official cards (2019+); shirt removal yellow; history of cards (Ken Aston, 1970 Mexico WC).

## Test 1: Definitions

- 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.

## Test 2: Numbers and counts

- 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.

## Test 3: Roles and authority

- 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.

## Test 4: Allowed and forbidden

- 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.

## Test 5: Consequences and downstream effects

- 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.

## Test 6: Card history

- 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.

## Test 7: Exceptions and edge cases

- 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.)

## Test 8: Comparisons

- 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.

## Test 9: Mini scenarios

- 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).

## Test 10: Mixed review

- 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.

Sources: 

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