'Pathetic' IFAB & Premier League accused of 'killing the game' by introducing 10-minute sin bins as ex-Arsenal star Paul Merson fires 'most boring football ever' warning

The International Football Association Board (IFAB) is preparing to carry out trials of sin bins at the professional level in a measure to reduce levels of match-official abuse that has been steadily on the rise. The trials have been going on since 2019 at grassroots and have produced considerable success, prompting a potential extension to professional leagues.

Former Arsenal player, Merson, condemned the idea as 'pathetic' andwrote in his Sky Sports column: "In rugby union, you go down to 14 players, the other team's looking at scoring seven to 10 points. It's a massive advantage. A massive advantage.

"You put someone in the sin bin in football for 10 minutes, you're killing the game. You'd get 10 players sitting behind the ball the whole time, it'd be the most boring football ever. It's an absolute waste of time, a waste of time. All they’d be doing then for that 10 minutes is taking their time over taking a throw-in, they’ll take a goal kick, they’ll buy a foul, and it’ll just grind out the worst 10 minutes you could imagine."

Merson directed his frustration at PGMOL, arguing against introducing new elements without resolving existing rule problems regarding VAR.

"We’re talking about people who know the rules but don’t have a clue about football. Not a clue," he said. It’ll just make people argue even more! 'Oh, he should’ve been sent to the sin bin last week.'When are they going to stop? Don’t put new things in when you haven’t fixed the problems with the rules you’ve already got.

"It’s like going to a restaurant and having a spaghetti bolognese, it comes out and you take a taste and say 'Oh, that tastes horrible'. You don’t put it back in the kitchen and start putting extra stuff in it! They’re putting more pressure on themselves."

FIFA are also contemplating significant changes to VAR, which include granting "greater responsibilities," fordecision-making on free-kicks, corners and second yellow cards. However, these potential changes are still in the planning stage and will not be implemented until IFAB's annual general meeting in March 2024.