![Foulsandmisconduct](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c3/Foulsandmisconduct.svg)
In the sport of
association football
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...
, fouls and misconduct are acts committed by players which are deemed by the
referee
A referee is an official, in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The official tasked with this job may be known by a variety of other titl ...
to be unfair and are subsequently penalised. An offence may be a foul, misconduct or both depending on the nature of the offence and the circumstances in which it occurs. Fouls and misconduct are addressed in Law 12 of the
Laws of the Game.
A foul is an unfair act by a player, deemed by the referee to contravene the game's laws, that interferes with the active play of the game. Fouls are punished by the award of a free kick (possibly a
penalty kick
A penalty shot or penalty kick is a play used in several sports whereby a goal is attempted during untimed play. Depending on the sport, when a player commits certain types of penalties, the opposition is awarded a penalty shot or kick attempt. ...
) to the opposing team. A list of specific offences that can be fouls are detailed in Law 12 of the Laws of the Game (other infractions, such as technical infractions at restarts, are not deemed to be fouls); these mostly concern unnecessarily aggressive physical play and the offence of handling the ball. An infringement is classified as a foul when it meets all the following conditions:
# It is committed by a player (not a substitute);
# It occurs on the field of play;
# It occurs while the ball is
in play
Dead ball is a term in many ball sports in which the ball is deemed temporarily not playable, and no movement may be made with it or the players from their respective positions of significance. Depending on the sport, this event may be quite rout ...
;
# It is committed against an opponent (for fouls concerning contact or conduct between players).
For example, a player striking the referee or a teammate is not a foul, but is misconduct.
[
]
Misconduct is any conduct by a player that is deemed by the referee to warrant a disciplinary sanction (caution or dismissal). Misconduct may include acts which are, additionally, fouls. Unlike fouls, misconduct may occur at any time, including when the ball is out of play, during half-time and before and after the game, and both players and
substitutes may be sanctioned for misconduct.
Misconduct will result in the player either receiving a caution (indicated by a
yellow card
Yellow card may refer to:
* Yellow card (sport), shown in many sports after a rules infraction or, by analogy, a serious warning in other areas
* Yellowcard, an American alternative rock band
* Yellow Card Scheme, a United Kingdom initiative conce ...
) or being dismissed ("sent off") from the field (indicated by a
red card A red card is a type of penalty card that is shown in many sports after a rules infraction.
Red card may also refer to:
Art, entertainment, and media
* ''Red Card'' (album), 1976 release by Streetwalkers
* Red card, suit (cards) of hearts or d ...
).
A dismissed player cannot be replaced; their team is required to play the remainder of the game with one less player. A second caution results in the player being dismissed. The referee has considerable discretion in applying the Laws; in particular, the offence of unsporting behaviour may be used to deal with most events that violate the spirit of the game, even if they are not listed as specific offences.
The system of cautioning and dismissal has existed in the Laws since 1881. Association football was the first sport to introduce
penalty card
Penalty cards are used in many sports as a means of warning, reprimanding or penalising a player, coach or team official. Penalty cards are most commonly used by referees or umpires to indicate that a player has committed an offence. The officia ...
s to indicate the referee's decisions; a practice since adopted by many other sports. The first major use of the cards was in the
1970 FIFA World Cup
The 1970 FIFA World Cup was the ninth edition of the FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international Association football, football championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's senior national teams. Held from 31 May t ...
, but they were not made mandatory at all levels until 1992.
Categories of foul
The rules divide fouls into two categories depending on the type of
free kick
A free kick is an action used in several codes of football to restart play with the kicking of a ball into the field of play.
Association football
In association football, the free kick is a method of restarting the game following an offence ...
awarded to the opposition, either a direct or indirect free kick.
Direct free kick offences
Direct free kicks offences are the more common type of foul. If a direct free kick is awarded in the penalty area of the offending player's team, a
penalty kick
A penalty shot or penalty kick is a play used in several sports whereby a goal is attempted during untimed play. Depending on the sport, when a player commits certain types of penalties, the opposition is awarded a penalty shot or kick attempt. ...
is awarded.
The majority of fouls concern contact between opponents. Although contact between players is a part of the game, the Laws prohibit most forceful contact, meaning that, unlike other football codes, a
tackle in association football is required to be predominantly directed against the ball rather than the player in possession of it. Specifically the rules prohibit charging, jumping at, kicking (or attempting to kick), pushing, striking (or attempting to strike), tripping (or attempting to trip), and rugby-style tackling an opponent in a manner considered to be careless, reckless or "using excessive force". Being ''careless'' makes it an offence, being ''reckless'' makes it a cautionable offence and ''using excessive force'' makes it a sending-off offence. Such classification of contact is a matter of judgement for the referee.
The handball offence is also penalised with a direct free kick. Players in association football are prohibited from touching the ball below the shoulder while the ball is in play, with the exception of the
goalkeeper
In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...
in their penalty area. When determining a handball offence, not every touch of the player's hand/arm to the ball is an offence. The area of the arm in line with the bottom of the armpit and above is allowed to touch the ball.
Unavoidable accidental contact is not penalised - such as if the ball is struck against a player's arm at short range and the player could not have reasonably avoided the contact. However if the player has positioned their arm so as to make their body "unnaturally bigger" and contact occurs, this is considered handball. Additionally, if a player scores in the opponent's goal with their hand or arm, even if accidental and unavoidable, this is considered handball and the goal does not stand.
The goalkeeper also has the same rules regarding handballs outside of the penalty area. If the goalkeeper handles the ball inside the penalty area when not allowed to do so, an indirect free kick is awarded.
Direct free kicks are also awarded for holding an opponent, impeding them with contact, biting or spitting at other persons, throwing an object (other than the ball) at an opponent or match official, or making contact with the ball with a held object.
Indirect free kick offences
An
indirect free kick
A free kick is a method of restarting play in association football. It is awarded after an infringement of the laws by the opposing team.
Direct and indirect free kicks
Free kicks may be either direct or indirect, distinguished as follows:
...
is awarded if a player:
*plays in a dangerous manner
*impedes the progress of an opponent without any contact being made
*is guilty of dissent, using offensive, insulting or abusive language and/or action(s) or other verbal offences
*prevents the goalkeeper from releasing the ball from their hands or kicks or attempts to kick the ball when the goalkeeper is in the process of releasing it
*initiates a deliberate trick for the ball to be passed (including from a free kick or goal kick) to the goalkeeper with the head, chest, knee etc. to circumvent the
back-pass rule
In association football, the back-pass rule prohibits the goalkeeper from handling the ball in most cases when it is passed to them by a team-mate. It is described in Law 12, Section 2 of the Laws of the Game.
Award
Goalkeepers are normally all ...
, whether or not the goalkeeper touches the ball with their hands; the goalkeeper is penalised if responsible for initiating the deliberate trick
*commits any other offence, not previously mentioned in the Laws, for which play is stopped to caution or send off a player
An indirect free kick is awarded if a goalkeeper, inside their penalty area, commits any of the following offences:
*controls the ball with their hands for more than six seconds before releasing it from possession
*touches the ball again with their hands after releasing it from possession and before it has touched another player
*touches the ball with their hands after it has been deliberately kicked to them by a team-mate, or thrown to them from a throw-in taken by a team-mate (the
back-pass rule
In association football, the back-pass rule prohibits the goalkeeper from handling the ball in most cases when it is passed to them by a team-mate. It is described in Law 12, Section 2 of the Laws of the Game.
Award
Goalkeepers are normally all ...
)
An indirect free kick is also awarded if an
offside offence occurs, though offside is not considered a foul and will never be punished by a caution or dismissal.
Indirect free kicks are taken from the place where the offence occurred, even if it was inside the offending player's penalty area. If the offence took place inside their goal area the indirect free kick is taken from the nearest point on the goal area line which runs parallel to the goal line.
Other offences
Not all infractions of the Laws are fouls. Non-foul infractions may be dealt with as technical infractions (e.g. as breaching the rules governing the restarts of play) or misconduct (these are punishable by a caution or sending-off). Note that persistent infringement of the Laws is an offence for which the player may be cautioned.
Misconduct
The referee may consider serious or persistent offences to be ''misconduct'' worthy of an official caution or dismissal from the game. Association football was the first sport to use
coloured cards to indicate these actions.
Yellow card (caution)
![Matt Reis Carlos Ruiz yellow card](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/da/Matt_Reis_Carlos_Ruiz_yellow_card.jpg)
A yellow card is shown by the
referee
A referee is an official, in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The official tasked with this job may be known by a variety of other titl ...
to indicate that a player has been officially cautioned.
The player's details are then recorded by the referee in a small notebook; hence a caution is also known as a "booking". A player who has been cautioned may continue playing in the game; however, a player who receives a second caution in a match is sent off (shown the yellow card again, and then a red card). Law 12 of the
Laws of the Game lists the types of offences and misconduct that may result in a caution. Players can be cautioned and shown a yellow card if they commit the following offences:
*Dissent by word or action
*Persistent infringement of the Laws of the Game
*Delaying the restart of play
*Failure to respect the required distance when play is restarted with a corner kick, throw-in or free kick
*Entering or re-entering the field of play without the referee's permission
*Deliberately leaving the field of play without the referee's permission
*
Unsporting behaviour (a broad category of caution-worthy acts, see below)
There are also two offences which apply in matches using the
video assistant referee
The video assistant referee (VAR) is a match official in association football who reviews decisions made by the referee.
The assistant video assistant referee (AVAR) is a current or former referee appointed to assist the VAR in the video ope ...
system:
*Entering the referee review area
*Excessively using the "review" (TV screen) hand gesture
What constitutes cautionable unsporting behaviour is generally at the referee's discretion, though Law 12 lists a number of examples.
These include
simulation
A simulation is the imitation of the operation of a real-world process or system over time. Simulations require the use of Conceptual model, models; the model represents the key characteristics or behaviors of the selected system or proc ...
intended to deceive the referee, or attempting to score by handling the ball. Fouls which are committed recklessly or fouls which are committed with the intention of breaking up a promising attack are also considered unsporting behaviour and punishable with a yellow card. Fouls which are committed with excessive force, however, or which are deliberately committed to deny an obvious goalscoring opportunity for the player fouled (i.e. a
professional foul
In various sports, a professional foul is a deliberate act of foul play intended to bring about an advantage for the perpetrator's team. Professional fouls are usually committed to prevent an opponent from scoring.
Various sports contain provisi ...
),
[Denying a goalscoring opportunity: Red card rule relaxed by IFAB](_blank)
BBC. 14 April 2016 are punishable by a red card.
The Laws state that goals may be
celebrated, but that such celebrations should not be "excessive". Removing one's shirt or covering one's face with the shirt will result in a caution. Players may also be cautioned for climbing onto a perimeter fence or approaching/entering spectator areas in a manner that causes safety and/or security concerns.
In most tournaments, the accumulation of a certain number of yellow cards over several matches results in a suspension of the offending player for a certain number of subsequent matches, the exact number of cards and matches varying by jurisdiction. In the
UEFA Champions League
The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...
, for instance, accumulating two yellow cards in a stage of the tournament will lead to a one-game suspension. In such situations players have often been suspected of (and occasionally even admitted to) deliberately incurring a second booking in a tournament when the following game is of little importance, thus resetting their yellow card tally to zero for subsequent games (known as "cleaning cards"). However, while technically within the rules of competition, this is considered unsportsmanlike and UEFA have on occasion threatened additional fines and or suspensions to the players and managers involved.
In 2017 IFAB approved temporary dismissals (
sin-bin
The penalty box or sin bin (sometimes called the bad box, or simply bin or box) is the area in ice hockey, rugby union, rugby league, roller derby and some other sports where a player sits to serve the time of a given penalty, for an offence not ...
s) for cautionable offences similar to that seen in other sports; however, this is only permitted for youth, veterans, disability and grassroots football. Competitions' use of this system—rather than normal yellow cards—is optional, and there are variations in how it can be implemented. For 90-minute games, the length of the temporary dismissal is 10 minutes.
Red card (dismissal)
![ASV Draßburg vs](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c8/ASV_Dra%C3%9Fburg_vs._SC_Ritzing_20190601_%2878%29.jpg)
A red card is shown by a
referee
A referee is an official, in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The official tasked with this job may be known by a variety of other titl ...
to signify that a player must be sent off.
A player who has been sent off is required to leave the field of play immediately, must take no further part in the game and cannot be replaced by a substitute, forcing their team to play with one fewer player. If a team's goalkeeper receives a red card another player is required to assume goalkeeping duties, so teams usually
substitute another goalkeeper for an outfield player if they still have substitutes available.
Law 12 of the
Laws of the Game lists the categories of misconduct for which a player may be sent off. These are:
* denying an obvious goalscoring opportunity with a handball (this does not apply to a goalkeeper within their penalty area)
* denying an obvious goalscoring opportunity with a foul (unless the referee awards a penalty and it was an attempt to play the ball)
* serious foul play
* violent conduct
* using offensive, insulting or abusive language and/or action(s)
* receiving a second yellow card (caution) in the same match
In matches using the
Video Assistant Referee
The video assistant referee (VAR) is a match official in association football who reviews decisions made by the referee.
The assistant video assistant referee (AVAR) is a current or former referee appointed to assist the VAR in the video ope ...
system, the list also includes:
* entering the video operation room (VOR)
Serious foul play is a foul committed using excessive force (i.e., "the player has far exceeded the necessary use of force and is in danger of injuring his opponent when challenging for the ball and when it is in play.").
Violent conduct is distinct from serious foul play in that it may be committed by any player, substitute, or substituted player against any person, e.g., teammates, match officials, or spectators.
Once a player has been sent off, they are not permitted to stay in the team's
technical area
A technical area in association football is an area which a manager, other coaching personnel, and substitutes are allowed to occupy during a match.
The technical area includes the dugout, bench and a marked zone adjacent to the pitch.
History ...
and must leave the immediate field or playing area.
In most tournaments, a single ''direct'' red card (i.e. not one received as a result of two successive yellow ones) results in disqualification of the offending player for one or more subsequent matches, with the exact number of matches varying by the offence committed and by jurisdiction.
Should a team's on-field players receive a total of 5 red cards, it will be unable to field the required minimum of 7 players, resulting in the game being abandoned.
Starting in August 2020 amid the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
,
IFAB
The International Football Association Board (IFAB) is the body that determines the Laws of the Game of association football. IFAB was founded in 1886 to agree standardised Laws for international competition, and has since acted as the "guardia ...
and the
Football Association
The Football Association (also known as The FA) is the governing body of association football in England and the Crown Dependencies of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. Formed in 1863, it is the oldest football association in the world an ...
stated that any player who deliberately coughs at others will receive a straight red card. Less severe incidents are classified as "unsporting behaviour" and will result in a yellow card.
History and origin
![Argentina 1966 rattin](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/97/Argentina_1966_rattin.jpg)
The practice of cautioning and excluding players who make serious breaches of the rules has been part of the Laws of the Game since 1881.
However, the practice of using
language-neutral coloured cards to indicate these actions did not follow for almost 90 years.
The idea originated with British
football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...
referee
Ken Aston
Kenneth George Aston, MBE (1 September 1915 – 23 October 2001) was an English teacher, soldier, and football referee, who was responsible for many important developments in football refereeing - including the yellow and red penalty card sys ...
.
Aston had been appointed to the
FIFA
FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' ( French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was found ...
Referees' Committee and was responsible for all referees at the
1966 FIFA World Cup
The 1966 FIFA World Cup was the eighth FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial football tournament for men's senior national teams. It was played in England from 11 July to 30 July 1966. The England national football team defeated West Germany 4-2 in the ...
. In the
quarter finals
A single-elimination, knockout, or sudden death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of each match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final matc ...
,
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
met
Argentina
Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...
at
Wembley Stadium
Wembley Stadium (branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE for sponsorship reasons) is a football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the Wembley Stadium (1923), original Wembley Stadium, which was demolished from 200 ...
. After the match, newspaper reports stated that referee
Rudolf Kreitlein
Rudolf Kreitlein (14 November 1919, in Fürth – 31 July 2012, in Stuttgart) was a German international football referee, active in the 1960s.
England v Argentina, 1966 World Cup
Kreitlein is perhaps best known for having refereed the 1966 ...
had cautioned both
Bobby
Bobby or Bobbie may refer to:
People
* Bobby (given name), a list of names
* Bobby (actress), from Bangladesh
* Bobby (rapper) (born 1995), from South Korea
* Bobby (screenwriter) (born 1983), Indian screenwriter
* Bobby, old slang for a constabl ...
and
Jack Charlton
John Charlton (8 May 193510 July 2020) was an English footballer and manager who played as a defender. He was part of the England national team that won the 1966 World Cup and managed the Republic of Ireland national team from 1986 to 199 ...
, as well as sending off Argentine
Antonio Rattín
Antonio Ubaldo Rattín (born May 16, 1937) is a former Argentine football player, best known as a Boca Juniors midfielder, and because of an incident in a match at the 1966 FIFA World Cup.
Rattín remains as one of the greatest idols of Boca Jun ...
. The referee had not made his decision clear during the game, and England manager
Alf Ramsey
Sir Alfred Ernest Ramsey (22 January 1920 – 28 April 1999) was an English football player and manager. As a player, he represented the England national team and captained the side, but he is best known for his time as England manager fr ...
approached FIFA for post-match clarification. This incident started Aston thinking about ways to make a referee's decisions clearer to both players and spectators. Aston realised that a colour-coding scheme based on the same principle as used on
traffic lights
Traffic lights, traffic signals, or stoplights – known also as robots in South Africa are signalling devices positioned at road intersections, pedestrian crossings, and other locations in order to control flows of traffic.
Traffic light ...
(yellow - caution, red - stop) would traverse language barriers and clarify whether a player had been cautioned or expelled.
[ As a result, yellow cards to indicate a caution and red cards to indicate an expulsion were used for the first time in the ]1970 FIFA World Cup
The 1970 FIFA World Cup was the ninth edition of the FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international Association football, football championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's senior national teams. Held from 31 May t ...
in Mexico (though no players were sent off in that tournament). The use of penalty card
Penalty cards are used in many sports as a means of warning, reprimanding or penalising a player, coach or team official. Penalty cards are most commonly used by referees or umpires to indicate that a player has committed an offence. The officia ...
s has since been adopted and expanded by several sporting codes, with each sport adapting the idea to its specific set of rules or laws.
Until 1992, a player committing a second bookable offence was shown only a red card; in that year, the IFAB mandated that a yellow card be shown before the red card. Lothar Matthäus
Lothar Herbert Matthäus (; born 21 March 1961) is a German association football, football pundit and former professional player and manager. After captaining Germany national football team, West Germany to victory in the 1990 FIFA World Cup whe ...
had previously proposed a "lilac card" to distinguish such cases from the more serious "straight red card" offence.
Frequency
Fouls are fairly common occurrences in games. For example, the 2012–13 football season saw fouls-per-game rates in the major European leagues ranging from 23 in the 2012–13 Premier League
The 2012–13 Premier League (known as the Barclays Premier League for sponsorship reasons) was the 21st season of the Premier League, the English professional league for association football clubs, since its establishment in 1992, and the 114 ...
to 32 in the Bundesliga
The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary footba ...
.
Yellow cards are less common, though a typical game will feature a few – at the 2014 FIFA World Cup
The 2014 FIFA World Cup was the 20th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for men's national football teams organised by FIFA. It took place in Brazil from 12 June to 13 July 2014, after the country was awarded the hosting ri ...
there were, on average, about three cautions per game. Dismissals are much rarer; that same tournament saw an average of 0.2 red cards per match.
Referee's discretion
The referee has a very large degree of discretion as to the enforcement of the 17 Laws including determining which acts constitute cautionable offences under the very broad categories. For this reason, refereeing decisions are sometimes controversial. Some Laws may specify circumstances under which a caution should or must be given, and numerous directives to referees also provide additional guidance. The encouragement for referees to use their common sense
''Common Sense'' is a 47-page pamphlet written by Thomas Paine in 1775–1776 advocating independence from Great Britain to people in the Thirteen Colonies. Writing in clear and persuasive prose, Paine collected various moral and political argu ...
is known colloquially as "Law 18".
Advantage
According to the principle of advantage, play should be allowed to continue when an offence occurs and the non-offending team will benefit from ongoing play. If the anticipated advantage does not ensue within a few seconds, the referee
A referee is an official, in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The official tasked with this job may be known by a variety of other titl ...
will stop play and restart with a direct or indirect free kick
A free kick is an action used in several codes of football to restart play with the kicking of a ball into the field of play.
Association football
In association football, the free kick is a method of restarting the game following an offence ...
or a penalty kick
A penalty shot or penalty kick is a play used in several sports whereby a goal is attempted during untimed play. Depending on the sport, when a player commits certain types of penalties, the opposition is awarded a penalty shot or kick attempt. ...
(depending on the offence).
Restarts
If the ball is out of play when an infraction of the Laws of the Game occurs, play is restarted according to the reason the ball became out of play before the infraction. (Any infraction of the Laws of the Game that occurs while the ball is out of play can be misconduct, but is not a foul.)
If the misconduct occurs when the ball is in play, play need not be stopped to administer a caution or a dismissal, as these may be done at the next stoppage of play (this is usually the case when the opposing team would gain an advantage in having play continue). When this is the case, play is restarted according to the reason for the ball becoming out of play, e.g. a throw-in
A throw-in is a method of restarting play in a game of association football when the ball has exited the side of the field of play. It is governed by Law 15 of The Laws of the Game.
Award
When the ball goes out of play past the touch-line ...
if play stopped due to the ball crossing a touchline.
If play is stopped to administer a caution or dismissal:
* If a foul has occurred as well as misconduct, play is restarted according to the nature of the offence (either an indirect free kick
A free kick is a method of restarting play in association football. It is awarded after an infringement of the laws by the opposing team.
Direct and indirect free kicks
Free kicks may be either direct or indirect, distinguished as follows:
...
, direct free kick
A free kick is a method of restarting play in association football. It is awarded after an infringement of the laws by the opposing team.
Direct and indirect free kicks
Free kicks may be either direct or indirect, distinguished as follows:
...
or penalty kick
A penalty shot or penalty kick is a play used in several sports whereby a goal is attempted during untimed play. Depending on the sport, when a player commits certain types of penalties, the opposition is awarded a penalty shot or kick attempt. ...
to the opposing team)
* If no foul under Law 12 has occurred, play is restarted with an indirect free kick to the opposing team
Team officials
Team officials such as managers and coaches are not subject to the cautionable and sending-off offences listed above, as these apply only to players, substitutes, and substituted players. However, according to Law 5 the referee can caution or dismiss team officials from their technical areas and immediate surroundings. In 2019 the IFAB approved the use of red and yellow cards for team officials.
The league sanction for a sent-off coach or manager is normally a ban from being in the dugout or in the changing room for a certain number of matches thereafter. The particular football association determines the length of the ban and/or other appropriate action.
Post-match penalties
Many football leagues and federations impose off-field penalties for players who accumulate a certain number of cautions in a season, tournament or phase of a tournament. Typically, these take the form of suspending a player from playing in his team's next game(s) after reaching a particular number of cautions. Such off-field penalties are determined by league rules, and not by the Laws of the Game.
Similarly, a direct red card usually also results in additional sanctions, most commonly in the form of suspensions from playing for a number of future games, although financial fines may also be imposed. The exact punishments are determined by tournament or competition rules, and not by the Laws of the Game. FIFA in particular has been adamant that a red card in any football competition must result in the guilty player being suspended for at least the next game, with the only grounds of appeal being mistaken identity.
At the 2006 FIFA World Cup
The 2006 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Germany 2006, was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to host the ...
, any player receiving two yellow cards during the three group stage matches, or two yellow cards in the knockout stage matches had to serve a one-match suspension for the next game. A single yellow card did not carry over from the group stage to the knockout stages. Should the player pick up his second yellow during the team's final group match, he would miss the Round of 16 if his team qualified for it. However, suspensions due to yellow cards do not carry beyond the World Cup finals.
For the 2010 FIFA World Cup
, image = 2010 FIFA World Cup.svg
, size = 200px
, caption = ''Ke Nako. (Tswana and Sotho for "It's time") Celebrate Africa's Humanity'It's time. Celebrate Africa's Humanity'' (English)''Dis tyd. Vier Afrika se mensd ...
, the rules were changed so that any player who received two yellow cards between the beginning of the tournament and the end of the quarterfinal round (instead of the end of the group stage matches) would serve a one-match suspension for the next game. As a result, only players that received a red card (whether directly or after a second booking) in the semifinal game would not be able to play in the final.
In some league/group competitions, a team's fair play record, as measured by the total number of yellow and red cards acquired by a team, may be used as a potential tie-breaking method to determine final table position.[For example in the qualifying stages of ]UEFA Euro 2016
The 2016 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2016 (stylised as UEFA EURO 2016) or simply Euro 2016, was the 15th UEFA European Championship, the quadrennial international men's football championship of Europe o ...
:
See also
*Laws of the Game (association football)
The Laws of the Game are the codified rules of association football. The laws mention the number of players a team should have, the game length, the size of the field and ball, the type and nature of fouls that referees may penalize, the offside ...
*
References
External links
Q&A: So what makes a bad tackle?
BBC Sport website, 24 September 2012
The Junior Games - Catching Misconduct, a 10-year story
Tableau Public website, June 2016
{{DEFAULTSORT:Foul (Association Football)
Laws of association football
Association football terminology
Misconduct