Discipline
Yellow and red cards
Yellow and red cards are how referees caution players, send players off and manage misconduct during a match. This guide explains what each card means, what offences they are given for, and how cards can lead to suspensions.
What yellow and red cards mean
Football uses yellow cards for cautions and red cards for sending-offs.
Yellow card
A caution. A player on the pitch can stay in the match but is on a warning. A second yellow card in the same match leads to a red card.
Red card
A sending-off. A player on the pitch must leave the match and cannot be replaced, so the team plays with one fewer player.
Who can be shown cards
Cards can be shown to players, substitutes, substituted players and team officials, although only sending off a player on the pitch reduces the team to fewer players.
Cautionable offences
A yellow card is shown for offences that are not serious enough for a sending-off but should not go unpunished.
Unsporting behaviour
Includes reckless fouls, handball offences that stop a promising attack, and tactical fouls that break up an opposition move.
Dissent
Showing disagreement with a referee's decision by word or action.
Persistent fouling
Repeatedly committing minor fouls, even if no single foul on its own is bad enough for a card.
Delaying the restart
Holding on to the ball after a stoppage, kicking it away, or otherwise slowing down the game.
Failing to respect distance
Not retreating the required distance at a restart, such as a free kick, corner, throw-in or dropped ball.
Entering or leaving without permission
Entering, re-entering or deliberately leaving the pitch without the referee's permission.
Sending-off offences
A red card is shown for the most serious offences in a match.
Serious foul play
A challenge that uses excessive force or endangers the safety of an opponent — for example, a high lunge with the studs showing.
Violent conduct
Any act of violence not connected to a challenge for the ball, including striking, kicking or attempting to strike or kick another player or person.
Biting or spitting at someone
Biting or spitting at an opponent, official or any other person on or around the pitch.
Denying a goal by handball
Handling the ball to stop a goal or obvious goal-scoring opportunity. Goalkeepers are treated differently inside their own penalty area, and some non-deliberate handball offences are punished with a yellow card instead of a red.
Denying an obvious goal-scoring opportunity
Stopping a clear chance through a foul. Often shortened to "DOGSO".
Offensive language or gestures
Using offensive, insulting or abusive language or gestures.
Two yellows make a red
A player who is shown two yellow cards in the same match is then shown a red card and sent off.
The second yellow is treated as a yellow first, and then a red is shown immediately afterwards. The player has to leave the pitch and cannot be replaced.
From a disciplinary point of view, two yellows leading to a red is treated differently from a straight red card. It normally brings a one-match suspension, while straight-red suspensions vary depending on the offence.
Denying a goal-scoring opportunity
One of the most discussed sending-off offences is the foul that stops a clear scoring chance.
When deciding whether to send a player off for stopping a goal-scoring chance, the referee considers four things: the distance between the foul and the goal, the general direction of play, the likelihood of keeping or gaining control of the ball, and the location and number of defenders.
There is one important exception inside the penalty area. If a player denies an obvious goal-scoring opportunity while attempting to play the ball or challenging for the ball, and the referee awards a penalty, the sanction is normally reduced from red to yellow. But holding, pulling, pushing, handball, or a challenge with no realistic chance of playing the ball can still mean a red card.
After the match
Cards do not end with the final whistle. They feed into competition discipline rules.
Match suspensions
A red card normally leads to at least a one-match ban, with longer bans for more serious offences such as serious foul play, violent conduct or offensive language.
Yellow-card totals
Many competitions suspend a player once they reach a set number of yellow cards, although the thresholds and reset points vary between competitions.
Disciplinary appeals
Some red cards can be appealed if the club believes the decision was wrong or the punishment is too severe. Successful appeals can have the suspension lifted.
Retrospective action
Acts of violence or other serious offences that were missed during the match can be reviewed afterwards by the competition's disciplinary panel.
What to read next
Cards are issued for fouls and other offences, so the natural next step is to look at how those offences are judged.