FIFA Hopeful Proposes Orange Card Punishment For Players

FIFA presidential candidate Jerome Champagne has suggested introducing orange cards that would allow referees to send players to a sin-bin.
The Frenchman, 55, launched his bid to succeed Sepp Blatter as the world governing body’s president on Monday.
He also wants to punish teams when players question officials and hopes football will consider using more technology for key decisions.
FIFA’s presidential election will be held in Zurich in June 2015.
His other proposals include:
·Quotas for foreign players
·Implementating rugby’s rule where only the captain can talk to the referee with a free-kick advanced 10 yards for any dissent
·Abolishing the ‘triple punishment’ rule where a player who prevents a goalscoring opportunity in the penalty areas concedes a spot-kick, is sent off and also suspended
·All FIFA presidential candidates taking part in live debates on television and in front of the six continental confederations
·Making public the salary of the FIFA President and leading officials
Former referees have mixed views on the proposals with George Courtney saying the introduction of sin-bins for orange cards would work but Roger Milford insisting it would make football “too dictatorial”.
Courtney, who officiated in the 1986 and 1990 World Cups in Mexico and Italy, said: “It would have to be under the right criteria but I think the time has come to seriously consider sin-bins.
“I expect the international board would be considering them.
“Red-card offences should still be punished with a red card but maybe for some other offences it would work.”
Jerome Champagne is a man of ideas and, clearly, ambition. He spoke to journalists for more than 90 minutes on topics ranging from the reform of FIFA’s powerful executive committee to how, as in rugby, only the captain of a team should be able to approach the referee during a game.
Getting into power to implement these ideas will be the tough part. He needs to convince a majority of 209 football associations that form FIFA to vote for him. And who will he stand against? Incumbent president Sepp Blatter and Uefa’s Michel Platini are yet to declare their intentions.
Pointedly, Champagne said “no” when asked if he could beat Blatter and wouldn’t say if he would withdraw from the race if the 77- year-old decides to pursue a fifth term of office.
But while he may not even make it on to the ballot paper in May 2015, Champagne’s manifesto and his electioneering in the coming months will undoubtedly help frame the debate in the race to lead world football.
Champagne, who has been backed by Pele, announced his intentions to become football’s most powerful man at a news conference in London.
“We need a different FIFA,” he said. “More democratic, more respected, which behaves better and which does more.”