Arsenal icon Merson blasts ‘pathetic’ rule change which has been ‘recommended for trialling’

Arsenal hero Paul Merson has slammed the decision to trial 10-minute sin-bins, saying it would ‘kill the game’.

It has been revealed that sin-bins are going to be trialed for professional games.

The addition of 10-minute sin-bins for cynical and professional fouls have been recommended, with the International Football Association Board (Ifab) saying it will “identify which levels are best to test”.

Ifab secretary Lukas Brud has said one of the next steps is to identify where is appropriate for the trials to take place.

Brud told BBC Sport: “The positive message of the meeting is that ‘yes, we’re going to do something in that direction’.

“Over the next weeks and months, we are going to identify which levels are best to test.

“I’m hoping in the next few months, we will have clarity about which competitions will want to trial this as well.

“It’s up to them, competition organisers, to decide whether they want to participate in those trials or not.

“I think it is important to understand that something big like this, and a big decision like that, has to be considered thoroughly when creating protocols and setting up the system to trial it.”

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Former Arsenal midfielder Merson is not a big fan of this idea, it is fair to say.

Writing in a column for Sky Sports, Merson said sin-bins will ‘kill the game’ and has branded it a ‘pathetic’ idea.

‘So they want to bring in sin bins. Sin bins? Pathetic,’ he wrote.

‘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.

‘Everybody loves the Premier League, you have a shot at one end and there’s a corner up the other end 30 seconds later. That just goes out the window for this 10 minutes, the team with the man down have got no choice but to sit behind the ball.

‘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.

‘You’re playing in the biggest league in the world, there’s going to be emotions, they get high – that’s the way it is. You’re playing to win, everybody wants to win. The thing they need to really get rid of is cheating.’

Merson continued: ‘We’re talking about people who know the rules but don’t have a clue about football. Not a clue. It’ll just make people argue even more! “Oh, he should’ve been sent to the sin bin last week”.’

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