The Dutch Football Association (KNVB) has officially announced that only team captains will be allowed to communicate with referees in all professional and amateur leagues in the Netherlands starting next season.
This measure is modeled after a new rule that was trialed at the European Championships and Olympics, where only the captain could contest referee decisions. Players who engaged in excessive arguing with the referee were given a yellow card. The KNVB believes this successfully maintained the spirit of sportsmanship on the field, and has decided to implement it.
The KNVB wrote: Collaboration between the captain and the referee will be strengthened. This means, in practical terms:
The referee will explain important decisions when necessary;
The captain will be responsible for guiding their teammates away from the referee;
Any player who ignores these instructions, approaches the referee unfairly, behaves disrespectfully, or protests will receive a yellow card.
If the captain is the goalkeeper, the team must designate a field player to take on this role when the goalkeeper is not near the referee.
This article is from a user submission and does not represent the views of Soccer News Pick. If you repost it, please indicate the source: https://www.soccernewspick.com/other/15035.html
