As well as having to adjust to a new league, West – as well as the rest of the NWCFL – will have to adapt to a rule change this coming season. As announced by The FA last summer, the start of this campaign will see the introduction of sin bins: temporary dismissal for players who are adjudged to be guilty of dissent against a match referee or their assistants.

At the time of the the announcement (which can be read here), The FA said:

The scheme was originally conceived following a decision by the International Football Association Board [IFAB] that gave national associations the ability to implement temporary dismissals from 2017-18 at the grassroots level of the game.

While given discretion whether to use the scheme for all cautions or selected cautions, The FA chose to focus on matters of dissent (which amounted to 25 per cent of all cautions during the 2016-17 season), directly support the Respect programme, and aims to ensure that football – both on and off the pitch – is an enjoyable, inclusive and a positive experience ‘For All’.

Thirty-one leagues from across the country at Step 7 and below of the national league system and Tier 5 and below of the women’s pyramid took part and resulted in the following:

• 25 leagues showed an overall reduction in dissent
• 38 per cent reduction in dissent across all leagues
• 72 per cent of players wanted to continue with the scheme
• 77 per cent of managers and/or coaches wanted to continue with the scheme
• 84 per cent of referees wanted to continue with the scheme.

Now, ahead of the start of the season, the NWCFL have released a guide to how the system will work in practice once competitive fixtures are underway. In short, temporary dismissals will last 10 minutes, and two for the same player will see them unable to continue playing but will allow them to be subbed at the end of their 10 minute dismissal as long as they have not been yellow carded (a yellow and two temporary dismissals is, in effect, an ejection from the game). Again, this will only be related to dissent against match officials, and the laws of the game otherwise remain the same.

See the sanction table below, or read the full article on NWCFL.com here.