The English Football Association has revealed that for the upcoming season, red and yellow cards will be handed to managers for touchline misconduct.
The sanctions will be enforced in the FA Cup, Football League, EFL Cup, EFL Trophy and National League, however in the Premier League managers will receive a verbal caution if the officials deem they have behaved irresponsibly.
The FA has also outlined that managers who receive four bookings will be further punished by being handed a one-match ban, with up 16 cards resulting in a further misconduct charge and subsequent punishment for the manager in question.
Furthermore, when it comes to pre match markets betting on booking points continues to be a popular option for punters, therefore adding the extra element of managers receivings bookings may well serve to elevate this market for betting operators.
Football Trading Supervisor at Sky Bet, Stuart Dallimore emphasised: “Our current rule on carded markets is, only cards shown to players currently on the pitch will count. Cards shown to managers or substitutes do not count. As such I would hope we’ll avoid any issues with managers picking up yellow cards.”
He added: “We may explore offering a specific manager bookings market later in the season once we have a few months’ worth of data to use.”
Nevertheless, with the press conferences of Jose Mourinho and Jurgen Klopp, as well as the appointment of Maurizio Sarri and Unai Emery stealing the limelight over the summer, English Premier League managers are becoming a more forefront feature of football coverage and it seems inevitable that manager markets will become a deeper part of an operators’ product.