when did red and yellow cards start?

[the cup]

Forgive the ignorance, but while watching the A&E program about Pele they mentioned that when Pele began to play, the game was more brutal because there where no red or yellow cards and players were rarely sent off. When did the use of red and yellow cards begin?

[empennage]

Originally posted by the cup
Forgive the ignorance, but while watching the A&E program about Pele they mentioned that when Pele began to play, the game was more brutal because there where no red or yellow cards and players were rarely sent off. When did the use of red and yellow cards begin?

This is from memory so give me some slack, but I believe cards started in the 1970 world cup. Maybe it wasn't 70 but I know for a fact it was at the first WC hosted by Mexico. The inventor was a FIFA referee named Ken Aston and he just passed away recently. He came up with the idea after an international game where a player didn't know he had been cautioned until the next day because of a language barrier between the ref and the player. Traffic lights use yellow(caution) and red (stop), so it was a logical progression.

[empennage]

Here's some more info on Ken Aston:

http://www.kenaston.org/KenAston/KenAston01.htm

Aston: It followed a particularly difficult game in the 1966 World Cup Finals between England and Argentina refereed by a referee who spoke only German, and it was quite a rough game. The following morning the two famous Charlton brothers, Jack and Bobby, were in bed, breakfasting in bed looking at the Sunday newspapers reporting the game. Suddenly Jack says to Bobby, “It says I was cautioned yesterday. I didn’t know I was cautioned.” “Neither did I,” said Bobby. “It says that you were cautioned, too, Bobby.” “Me? Never!” said Bobby. So they rang the (tournament manager) and he said, “I didn’t know you were cautioned. I’ll ring FIFA.” I was in the office at the time. The record keeper, secretary, confirmed that both had been, in fact, cautioned.
___I thought little more about it and, having finished my business in the office, I went and got my little MG sports car out to go home. Driving up the little side street to the main drag, the traffic light was green. So I accelerated to get the green light, and it suddenly went yellow and went red, and because of the fact that it was a little side road, I had to wait really a long time before it did go green. Got into the main drag, and immediately there were three sets of traffic lights about 50 yards apart, all green. Did the same thing, accelerated. Same thing, yellow, red. Yellow, take it easy. Red, finished. I thought, well, this is the way to overcome the language problem in international matches. And so I sat on this until 1970 and launched the red and yellow cards in the World Cup Finals in 1970 in Mexico.


More stories about him:
http://www.kenaston.org/kenaston/kenaston.htm