TEAMS CAN NOW REPLACE RED-CARDED PLAYER – IFAB

MBABANE – To suit modern day football, the International Football Association Board (IFAB) has changed the FIFA rules to allow teams to replace a red-carded player.

This new rule effectively means if a team has one player shown a red card, it can use one of the named substitutes on the team list as a replacement. However, the catch here is that such red card must have occurred even before the ball is kicked.
The rule, as explained, gives referees new powers to send off players for pre-match fights that can take place at the tunnels or while lining up on the pitch before match kick-off. Before, referees did not have the power to red card players before a match starts.

An example that they did not have such power is illustrated through EPL then stars Patrick Viera and Roy Keane, who had a pre-match fight but escaped unpunished – not anymore though as such incidents will be punished.
A red card to one player has to normally render the guilty team one man down and a further one match suspension for the offending player but as of June 1, this year, ahead of the Euro 2016, which will be the first to apply these changed rules, teams will start their game with 11 players still despite the red card.

The rule is among several significant changes approved by IFAB and communicated to FIFA during the 66th FIFA Congress last Saturday in Mexico, which Swaziland also attended. The soccer lawmakers did not end there but also gave video technology a two-year trial to start in Italy, expectedly in the season after next.

Also, defenders and goalkeeper will be relieved to learn that they can now get away with last-man fouls usually called the ‘triple punishment’ offences as the one committed by Mbabane Swallows’ Sandile ‘Nkomishi’ Ginindza when he escaped with a yellow card after denying a Manzini Wanderers player a clear scoring opportunity. Now, if the defending goalkeeper or defender makes an obvious challenge for the ball, the punishment is downgraded to a yellow card rather than an automatic red one.
Another change concerns the penalty kick so that if a kicker tries to deceive the goalkeeper by stopping and starting in his run-up, the right to have a retake is removed. Instead, the defending team are awarded an indirect free-kick and the attacking player is yellow carded. If goalkeepers move off their line they will also be yellow carded.

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