A blue card is to be introduced in football as part of a sin-bin trial.

Players shown a blue card would have to leave the field for 10 minutes, as part of an effort to crack down on dissent and blatant tactical fouls.

A player shown two blue cards or a blue and a yellow card would be sent off, trial protocols on sin-bins, plus other measures to combat poor player behaviour, were expected to be published by the International Football Association Board (IFAB), the game's lawmaking body, on February 9, but have been delayed.

Standard Sport understands the protocols are now expected to be the subject of further discussion at IFAB’s annual general meeting at Loch Lomond on March 2 and then released.

The Football Association is open to trialling sin-bins in the men's and women's FA Cups next season, although FIFA clarified last night that trials should be restricted to 'lower levels' - with the exact competitions expected to be decided at IFAB's AGM on March 1.

There have already been pilots of sin-bins carried out in amateur and youth games in England and Wales, where they were used to punish dissent.

The blue card would be the first new card to be used in the sport since the advent of yellow and red cards at the 1970 World Cup.

The concept has received mixed reviews with UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin declaring it would be “the death of football”. He has vowed not to introduce them to the upcoming European Championships or the Champions League, with the Premier League not expected to host trials anytime soon.

A FIFA statement in response to the news read: “FIFA wishes to clarify that reports of the so-called 'blue card' at elite levels of football are incorrect and premature. Any such trials, if implemented, should be limited to testing in a responsible manner at lower levels, a position that FIFA intends to reiterate when this agenda item is discussed at the IFAB AGM on 2 March.”

According to FA chief executive Mark Bullingham, trials have led to a very small number of blue cards actually being shown.

In December he said: “The success of sin-bins in the grassroots game has been prevention, rather than cure. You get to a point where players know the threat of sin-bins, so don’t transgress. And we would hope that it would make the same change [higher up the game].”

The FA rulebook for the use of blue cards in small-sided football lists unsporting behaviour, dissent, delaying the restart of play, persistent infringements, entering the field of play without permission and failing to adhere to the required distance for defending set plays.