Well, we certainly witnessed some of the effects of these changes yesterday. Some of the bookings were certainly an effect though the red card would have happened without them. I'm watching (in the background) the Charity Shield and an Arsenal player has kicked the ball away and is flabbergasted at getting a yellow card much like the Mansfield player yesterday. This goes to prove that, as a rule, professional footballers are not the brightest kids on the block. Anyway, anything that clamps down on tugging, tripping and general ****-housery is positive in my book. Which brings me to ask, why is it not applied in the penalty area? If yellow carding is meant to deter the niggly foul play outside the area, then why is holding, grabbing and virtual wrestling allowed in it? We saw last season the comical instance of George Ray for Barrow do the full 'Sumo-hug' on O'Riordan before being spoken to by the referee. Only for Ray to then resort to rugby-tackling O'Riordan to the ground. The Barrow manager then criticised the award of a penalty by claiming he saw nothing he hadn't seen on pitches every weekend.
Another aspect of changing interpretations is the added time. I'm all for it but I suspect the football establishment will attempt to pressure it to be changed. Despite the fact that it currently means I'll have to expect to get later trains home (more problematic for night games than the weekend), I believe it will result in fans seeing more football for their money. However, in their interviews on the O.S. both Bell and Adebisi condemned the measure. Despite this I hope the authorities ignore any initial clamour to abandon it. Once the noise has died down coaches will have to start finding ways of cutting down on the lulls and getting the ball back into play quickly. Then the added minutes will reduce.
The final point (sorry! - it's been a bit long!)is the 30 second rule for players who have left the field of play. We witnessed the downside of this yesterday. I get that it's part of stopping fake injuries. However, Rio's injury was far from fake and the 30 seconds could have been instrumental in punishing the Alex who had been victims of injury. It works, only one player went off for treatment, but it could have penalised an innocent team. So this idea needs to go back to the drawing board.
The yellow cards will settle down as will the added minutes so I hope the referees stick to their guns.