Sin Bins Will Make Football "Boring", Claims Former Chelsea Captain John Terry

Former Chelsea captain John Terry fears that introducing sin bins into the Premier League could make games "boring".

It was revealed this week that soccer's lawmaking body, the International Football Association Board (IFAB), has agreed to trial sin bins in the professional game next year following successful tests at amateur level.

As part of the trials, referees will be able to punish players for dissent or tactical fouls by removing them from matches for a period of 10 minutes.

Sin bins are already widely used at the elite level in rugby

IMAGO/Action Plus/John Patrick Fletcher

It is not yet clear whether trials will take place in the Premier League.

If they do, Terry is concerned that they may fail for two main reasons.

Firstly, he worries that there will still be "inconsistencies" among referees because each official will have a different "level of tolerance"

But Terry also believes that temporarily reducing a team to 10 players would disrupt the flow of games by encouraging defensive play.

Explaining his views on social media, Terry tweeted: "Sin bins in football? I'm so intrigued to hear everyone's thoughts on this? I personally don't like it because the level of tolerance and inconsistencies from referees will differ every week!"

He added that teams that get a player sent to the sin bin would likely "go into a low block and make it difficult to break down, which will become boring for every one watching!"

However, former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher believes that temporary dismissals could be a good thing.

Replying to Terry's tweet, Carragher suggested that a sin bin could have been a suitable punishment for Liverpool midfielder Curtis Jones against Tottenham in September, as well as for Marcus Rashford in Manchester United's 4-3 loss to Copenhagen earlier this month.

Jones and Rashford were both shown straight red cards in those games.

At IFAB's annual business meeting this week members also "supported a proposed trial whereby only the team captain may approach the referee in certain major game situations."

Carragher thinks that this is a good idea, even though he was not shy about confronting officials during his playing career.

He said: "Totally for only allowing the captain to talk to the referee, I do know that's very hypocritical coming from me!!"

Carragher received 70 yellow cards and was sent off twice during his EPL career, while Terry received 69 yellows and six reds.