Jamaica Gleaner
Published: Saturday | February 28, 2009
Home : Sport
Football lawmakers weigh rule changes
BELFAST, Northern Ireland (AP):

Football's lawmaking body will consider today whether to impose sin bins for yellow-card offenders, extend the half-time break and allow an extra substitute if a match goes into extra-time.

While the introduction of goalline cameras was vetoed last year by the International Football Association Board (IFAB), the technology issue will come up again at the meeting in Northern Ireland.

The Scottish Football Association (SFA), which has one of the eight IFAB votes, will revive the proposal at the meeting, during which FIFA will report on experiments backed the previous year to add two more officials monitoring the penalty area.

"The whole goalline technology thing was put on ice and we want to know whether the ice has melted," SFA chief executive Gordon Smith said. "We feel it was just dismissed last year without any proper argument. Are we only dealing with Michel Platini's idea of two extra officials?"

Experiment

The Irish FA, which is hosting the meeting, will ask IFAB to approve an experiment with rugby-style sin bins.

"We feel that with yellow cards it is another team that gets the benefit," IFA president Raymond Kennedy said.

"If their team is stupid enough to get another during that period they would be down to nine men. It would certainly have a marked improvement on discipline on the field."

The Scottish FA is proposing a change to the rules to allow a fourth substitution to be made if a match goes beyond the regulation 90 minutes.

FIFA will propose extending the half-time break by five minutes in a move that could generate more advertising revenue for broadcasters.

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