UEFA President Michel Platini on Sunday insisted he would "press ahead with his plan to introduce temporary sending offs in football while speaking on the opening day of the Dubai International Sports Conference," according to Ashley Hammond of GULF NEWS. Platini hopes the "proposed sin-bins, which he first floated in October, would help promote fair play." While yellow cards "act as a warning and red cards see players immediately expelled from the game, the 59-year-old believes introducing a white card for temporary dismissals" -- which are "successfully used in other sports" like rugby and ice hockey -- could "clean up football's image and clamp down on more minor breaches of respect." Platini: "We will test this at youth championships. Maybe it will be interesting to create a white card like in rugby, where if someone is not behaving properly the white card will see players sent off for a few minutes" (GULF NEWS, 12/28). GOAL's Paul Macdonald reported Platini, who was joined in Dubai by UEFA Chief Refereeing Officer Pierluigi Collina, also believes that "some current laws of the game need to be 'simplified' in order to ensure that football remains accessible to as wide an audience as possible." Platini: "There are different types of offside rules. It is difficult to find common and ethical standards to simplify the offside rule. We need to allow people who are in front of the TV to understand offside, too." Collina added, "We need simple rules, which can be understood by everybody. We need to work together" (GOAL, 12/28).
