Tottenham boss Ange Postecoglou wants proposed new rules ‘thrown in the bin’

Tottenham boss Ange Postecoglou did not mince his words when quizzed on the potential introduction of sin bins in Friday’s press conference. The topic was recently discussed in a meeting of the International Football Association Board (IFAB), which oversees the laws of the game, in London on Tuesday.

Sin bins were introduced at grassroots level in 2019 in a bid to combat dissent, with offending players given a 10-minute temporary dismissal from the pitch. IFAB members at Tuesday’s meeting agreed that sin bins should be trialled at higher levels and will now develop protocols and a system for putting the measures in place.

Postecoglou is not a fan of the proposed introduction of sin bins in the professional game, though. He said on Friday: “Yeah, bin it mate. Just bin the whole idea, forget about it. I just don’t understand. I don’t know why they keep interjecting themselves into the game.

“There’s not that much wrong in the game. I guess once they throw an idea like that out they will have already tested the waters. I don’t see a need for it. I don’t think we need to mess with the game too much, but it is what it is.”

It remains to be seen how a trial of sin bins would look in practice, with plans being drawn up to test the measures at higher levels in the near future. If adopted, the proposals would apply to both men’s and women’s football and would likely see players sent to the sin bin for offences such as dissent and cynical fouls.

Postecoglou was also quizzed on the subject of VAR, which has been a hot topic in recent weeks due to a number of controversial decisions and high-profile errors dominating the headlines. He was quick to suggest that VAR is now being used to ‘re-referee’ matches rather than sticking to its original purpose of correcting ‘clear and obvious’ mistakes.

“If I hear one more person say that it doesn’t re-referee a game… it’s exactly what it’s doing,” explained the Spurs boss.

“It was brought in for clear and obvious errors. A clear and obvious error for me would be if all of us in this room saw something during a game and said that it was definitely wrong. I think at the moment that it’s going with when the majority of this room say it’s wrong.

“Just leave it for what it was there for. If you’ve got to look at something from seven different angles and slow it down to the minute then it’s not a clear and obvious error, it’s re-refereeing the game.”

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