Permanent concussion substitutes approved, sin bin trials to continue

Additional permanent concussion substitutions will be enshrined in football's laws but it remains an option which is up to organisers of individual competitions to implement, the International Football Association Board (IFAB) said on Saturday (Mar 2).

Football's law-making body IFAB held its annual general meeting in Loch Lomond, Scotland where they also said trials for using sin bins as a punishment for dissent and tactical offences will continue to be refined.

IFAB announced changes and clarifications for the sport's laws, with the additional permanent concussion substitution law coming into effect from Jul 1 and they also confirmed additional trials.

"Regarding permanent concussion substitutions, the trial we've run is effectively concluded and that is now enshrined in the laws of the game," Ian Maxwell, CEO of the Scottish Football Association, told reporters.

"It will be up to competitions to determine if they want to use permanent concussion substitutions as per the protocol."

The protocol allows a team to replace a player with a suspected head injury without it counting towards their allocation of substitutes.

Sin bins, where players are sent off for 10 minutes as in rugby, have been a sore subject for Premier League managers while FIFA President Gianni Infantino said they were "completely opposed to blue cards" to send players to sin bins.

But Mark Bullingham, CEO of England's FA, said they were still refining the protocol at grassroots levels.

"When we announced everything in November, there was no backlash but there was quite a lot of support for sin bins," Bullingham said.

"For some reason the Premier League managers thought it would apply to them, that wasn't the intention. We've said: 'Let's get the protocol right'