In the beginning cards were not used in football, referees indicated fouls using their voices.
Penalty cards are used in many sports as a means of warning, reprimanding or penalizing a player, coach or team official. Penalty cards are most commonly used by referees or umpires to indicate that a player has committed an offense. The official will hold the card above his or her head while looking or pointing towards the player that has committed the offence. This action makes the decision clear to all players, as well as spectators and other officials in a manner that is language-neutral.
The colour or shape of the card used by the official indicates the type or seriousness of the offence and the level of punishment that is to be applied. Yellow and red cards are the most common, typically indicating, respectively, cautions and dismissals
How the use of cards come into play in football
In the beginning cards were not used in football, referees indicated fouls using their voices.
Ilford referee Ken Aston was the mastermind behind red & yellow cards! Ken, headmaster at Newbury Park School, was in charge of referees for the 1966 World Cup. He introduced the red & yellow cards for the 1970 Mexico World Cup.
These incidents led to the introduction of cards
The 1966 World Cup changed everything during the quarter final between Argentina and England. Due to violent behaviour, Antonio Ubaldo Rattin was sent off, He pretended to have not heard his punishment. It took minutes for him to return to the locker room. But another problem arose with Charlton brothers, Bobby and Jack were both cautioned during the game but they only found out by reading the paper the next day!
This was the last straw for FIFA, which decided to change things. Ken Aston, chairman of the referee’s Committee was asked to find a solution; After giving it some thought, he finally found an answer. He decided that using more visual method would make decisions clearer [CARDS].
However, colors didn’t come to his mind right away. Everything clicked into place when he was driving home.
‘‘I was driving and the traffic light went red. I said to myself: Yellow, warning; red, you are off.’’
That’s how the yellow, red and green cards were created. But it wasn’t until 1970 World Cup that cards were used.
However, the green card is no longer used since 2004; it was used for allowing the medical staff to come on field. Today, the referee just give a hand signal.
Ken Aston was an English football referee and Freemason responsible for many important developments in the game, including the yellow and red card system, the design of the black and white referee uniform and the concept of the fourth referee introduced before the 1970 World Cup.