As was the US in the Copa, it looks like Wales will be missing key players in the Semis, due to two yellows over five games. I have always found this rule too strict, but it has gotten worse here with an extra round of games. Biggest problem, IMO, is the game to game threshold for yellows is so different. And I'm a guy who had maybe two as a player in 30 years... Thoughts? Mods: BTW, if this is more properly in the general thread, please move, I put it here due to the effect on this tournament.
The main problem isn't setting it to "2", it's re-setting it after the QF. If they had kept it to re-setting after the group stage as it was in the past then you'd get people sitting ut for getting 2 cautions in 3 games and that most would think was fair enough. That said I think 2 is still a bit harsh. Probably could do something like getting a caution in 2 or 3 games in a row making you sit out a game (and you could use 3 or 4 in a row for CL/EL and regular league play).
I agree - either make it 3 overall with no resetting (and risk people missing out on the final for 3 cautions in 6 games), or make it 2, and reset after the group stage. I often get the impression that people don't like suspension rules, but blame referees/LOTG instead. This has led to (what we must now call "traditional") DOGSO being abandoned, because people complained about "triple punishment". By far the easiest part of that punishment to remove was the suspension, and it could have been done without having a huge on field effect. Instead, they have changed the law, and many of us on this board suspect it has been changed for the worse (though we still haven't seen it in action at the Euro). In previous tournaments there were complaints about star players missing big games through caution accumulation suspensions. Rather than raising the threshold, FIFA (through Busacca) put pressure on referees to caution as little as possible at the last World Cup, particularly on tactical fouls. This led to a tournament of poor refereeing and excessive fouling. I'm glad to see that this time the focus, at least from the media, is correctly directed at the accumulation rules. Let's hope for a change for 2018.
Agree completely. I have always thought this was a terrible idea. If the Laws are applied correctly by the referee, you run the risk of actually doing what people accuse referees of doing all the time: "ruining the game". A suspension for two cautions over five games is just ridiculous. To counter-act this, referees often don't apply the Laws as written, leading to the farce we often see at the World Cup. I think these suspensions are often intended as a deterrent for the players but they wind up deterring the referee. It could all be changed with simply revising the rules of competition, and doesn't require a change in the Laws. Not that I would expect FIFA to do the rational thing, of course. Suspensions for red-card offenses are not on-topic here, but they can be pretty harsh as well. I definitely accept that FIFA has defined nearly all contact to the head/neck and most contact during a stoppage in play as violent conduct, however I have seen a lot of 2-3 match suspensions for not-really-that-violent conduct. As I said, a bit off topic, but I think that far too many players are suspended in these tournaments.
I've always thought the accumulation rules made more sense in league play than tournaments, as they catch serial offenders more than the unlucky. If kept, I kinda like the idea of getting rid of resets and having something pegged to a span of games -- cautions in 2 of 3 consecutive games makes a certain amount of sense to me.
I'd like to see after the group stage or the first knock-out game, a group stage yellow could be subtracted. So you could have three if you are past the group stage and first knock out stage.
It's not clear to me what yellow card suspensions actually accomplish in short major pro tournaments. So I'd be happy to get rid of them. There may have been a time when these tournaments could be terrible hackfests against the best players, but the bar for SFP is far lower than it used to be and the standard of refereeing is much higher in general. I'd try a tournament with a 3 in 3 rule (yellow in three games in a row gets a suspension) and a 4 card overall limit, no resets, just to deter truly serial offenders.
I think as highly of accumulation rules in these settings as I do in other formats: its a "peanut butter" solution that doesn't solve the actual problem. Not all YC's are equal, and what you end up doing is potentially putting it in people's heads that the referee is "causing the player to miss the next game for a soft yellow". And you have players complaining about those "tactical but not physical" YC's that, in league play or prelims, they'd simply give a thumbs up or wave to, because they know it means they'll miss the next game. It can potentially be counter to the use of cards by the referee to enforce laws and control the match. But that's just my opinion, I could be totally wrong.