The number of yellow cards for dissent have trebled in the Premier League across the opening 16 game weeks compared to the 2022/23 season; there have been 80 cautions for such an offence compared to 24 last term
Friday 15 December 2023 15:58, UK
There has been a 25-per-cent increase in yellow cards in the Premier League this season and players are serving more suspensions as a result.
The ratio of yellow cards has now hit an all-time high of 4.5 per game, boosted with directives for officials to clamp down on time-wasting and dissent this season.
Sheffield United and Chelsea have received a league-topping 49 yellow cards so far, followed by Wolves (45), Brighton (43), Tottenham (42), Aston Villa and Newcastle (both 41).
At the other end of the scale, Arsenal (21), Liverpool (28), Crystal Palace (29), Manchester City and Bournemouth (both 30) have received the fewest yellows this term.
Tactical and reckless fouls remain the most common offences, with the former seeing a 20-per-cent rise in cautions, while first cautions for dissent and time-wasting have soared a staggering 218 per cent and 135 per cent this term.
Manchester United captain and key playmaker Bruno Fernandes becomes the latest big-name absentee for the showdown with Liverpool on Sunday after receiving a one-match ban for collecting five cautions.
The Portuguese is one of 31 players that have served, or set to serve, one-match suspensions for collecting five yellow cards.
Another 29 players are walking a tightrope in the upcoming round of Premier League fixtures - all sitting on four yellow cards and, therefore, being just one caution away from being handed one-match bans.
Of course, the suspensions extend beyond the players to managers, with Erik ten Hag, Mikel Arteta and Marco Silva all serving one-match bans from the touchlines for accumulating three yellow cards.
Five incumbent Premier League managers are also one booking away from a ban: Mauricio Pochettino, Pep Guardiola, Roberto De Zerbi, Sean Dyche and Steve Coper.
Former Sheffield United manager Paul Heckingbottom had also received two yellows before being axed and replaced by Chris Wilder last week.
The crackdown on dissent and time-wasting yellow cards has triggered an exponential rise in cautions, which raises the question: Should the suspension thresholds change, or, is the expectation for the dissent and time-wasting to subside?
Either way, for now, expect more yellow cards and suspensions...
Howard Webb, chief refereeing officer at Professional Game Match Officials Limited, speaking to Dave Jones on The Participant Behaviour Charter:
"We came into this season with a responsibility to try and change the way the game looked from an officiating point of view. We'd seen, year on year, a decline in certain aspects of the way participants were behaving - the number of times officials were surrounded, confrontations, technical area issues.
"That's no unique to the English game, we've seen it all over the world. I speak to lots of heads of refereeing all over the world and they've seen very similar things. We've seen disgraceful scenes in Turkey recently with a referee being assaulted on the field.
"Thankfully, we've not seen that here, but we've seen a decline in behaviours all the same.
"A recognition was made that something had to be done. The stakeholders came together, we created a working group to look at this and out of it came the Participant Behaviour Charter, really to empower officials to take firmer action - supported by all of the game - to try to change that direction of travel.
"Our officials were tasked at the start of the season with being robust and consistent in their dealings with behaviour that falls below an acceptable level and they've absolutely delivered.
"The numbers that have come out show the cautions for dissent have almost doubled, technical area yellow cards have increased as well.
"But alongside that has been a reduction in the time people surround officials, the number of mass confrontations has reduced. So we think it's had a positive effect in that respect. Of course, at some point, we want to see the dissent and yellow cards decline.
"We're here to change that particular part of the game and that culture of the game in relation to dissent."
"It takes time. We're talking about something that has been embedded for quite some time - this automatic challenging of officials and their decisions, whether they're right or wrong.
"But I'm confident it will change, we're not going to back down. We said that at the start of the season, that this is not just a campaign for this season or next season, it's here for good and for the good of the game.
"So we keep reminding our officials of the importance of being robust in this aspect. Not trying to take emotions out of the game, not expecting players to agree with every decision, understanding there'll be a reaction in the moment.
"But also ensuring that they will be supported when they take action against those behaviours and more than just that when the behaviour goes beyond that immediate reaction, when it's dissent and something really clear and obvious that undermines the official's authority and does nothing for the image of the game."
Tougher rules on dissent, introduced by football authorities last summer, have sparked a drastic rise in yellow cards but a reduction in on-field confrontation.
The number of yellow cards for dissent has grown substantially, with cards in the Premier League alone more than trebling, from 24 to 80.
But charges over mass confrontations between players and referee have fallen from 22 last campaign to nine this term. In the National League, the number of charges relating to misconduct in the manager's technical area has dropped from 52 to 44.
Every single Premier League team has picked up at least one red card this season - six went without one in the whole of last term. VAR has upgraded five tackles to red cards and downgraded none this season - VAR upgraded six and downgraded three throughout the entire of last term.
Trevor Birch, chief executive of the EFL:
"In the close season it was clear that we had to try and tackle the surrounding of officials, dissent and inflammatory behaviour, so while it is far from perfect it is encouraging to see that a tougher application of the rules has led to a decrease in unwanted incidents.
"More broadly, we all have a responsibility to ensure that we treat our match officials with the respect that they deserve. Across the world we are seeing troubling incidents with referees abused, assaulted and intimidated at all levels of the game.
"This is not unlinked to the behaviour and reactions we see on the pitch and while these drops are encouraging, there is still more to do."
