HAVE YOUR SAY: Are you in favour of sin bins to tackle dissent?

The proposal relates only to players booked for dissent and will see them being subject to what the FA calls 'temporary dismissals', whereby they will leave the field for 10 minutes.

The governing body has invited grassroots leagues at step seven - the seventh tier of non-League football - and below to trial the system.

It says this will include a mixture of Saturday and Sunday, male, female, adult and youth leagues across the country and that there has already been over 60 leagues in support of the plan.

A statement from the FA on Wednesday said: "Following the decision of IFAB (the International Football Association Board) earlier this year to permit national associations the ability to implement changes in rules at grassroots level of the game, we have agreed to pilot the system in selected leagues for the duration of the 2017-18 season.

"With dissent accounting for 24 per cent of all cautions at grassroots level, the intention is to change the behaviour and impose an immediate sanction on the player."

The FA added that sin bin cautions will not attract the normal £10 administration fee that cautions for dissent currently do.

At first, the prospect of implementing temporary dismissals in football felt like it would envelop a whole new grey area of what would be deemed as ‘sin-bin worthy’.

But this proposal is in fact very simple, using it for just dissent, which is a clear enough offence to punish - or so you would hope.

If this plan does indeed rise up the ranks, it would be fascinating to see how referees and professional players react to it. Interpretation plays a large part in a referee’s decision making, and it’s clear already that some officials take greater offence to verbal utterances that others.

Referees must unite to make this work, by not letting any act of dissent slip. Then, hopefully, it can start to eradicate dissent from the game. The FA have been far too lax with regards to player behaviour in the upper echelons – which is startling given the global audience - and while there will be no calling the referee ‘Sir’ anytime soon (or ever), this feels like a step in the right direction.