PARIS - Uefa president Michel Platini wants to see the sin bin introduced in football, but only to combat backchat from players.
In his book Parlons Football (Talking about Football), released yesterday, Platini, a former player, espouses the idea of creating a white card, to go alongside the existing red and yellow ones, to be used specifically to send players to the sin bin if they talk back to referees.
He believes the move would help fight against the "craze of contesting the referee" which has become "a veritable epidemic in football".
He said the white card would be followed by a 10-minute spell on the sidelines.
"It should not be confused in any way with the yellow card, which for its part is dedicated to fouls within the game," added the 59-year-old Frenchman.
The measure was one of a number proposed by Platini in his book, including increasing the amount of substitutes allowed during games from three to five.
He said he wanted to allow "two changes at half time, while maintaining the possibility to make three more during the course of the match".
Another idea is to remove the minimum age requirement for referees, allow goal-line officials to enter the field of play and to put an end to the so-called "triple penalisation" when a player concedes a penalty and is sent off for a professional foul, with a goal often being scored from the spot-kick as well.
Another idea promoted by Platini in his book is to reduce the power allowed to the president of Fifa, a post currently held by Sepp Blatter.
"Fifa often operates as an electoral machine in the service of maintaining one man," he said.
That was a direct dig at Blatter, of whom Platini has previously said the time has come for the 78-year-old to step aside and allow new blood to take over the helm of the world football governing body. - AFP