What happens when a player receives little-known green card in football

The punishment for the little-known green card in football has been revealed.

We have all been accustomed to referees brandishing yellow and red cards in football but did you know there are different colour cards within the game?

For example, back in January 2023, a white card was handed out for the first time during a match between Sporting Clube de Portugal and Benfica.

The white card was produced to praise fair play during matches. It was designed with the hope that it would promote ethical values in the sport.

Aside from the white card, a green one was handed out back in June 2018, during the CONIFA World Football Cup, which is a tournament for non-FIFA affiliated international teams.

During the match, the referee stopped the match and showed a player the green card and ordered him to leave the pitch.

According to CONIFA regulations, “a player who receives a green card must leave the field of play immediately, but can be replaced if his team have not used all of their substitutes. A player receiving a green card is not excluded from his team's next match.”

The tournament’s organiser, Paul Watson spoke to Sky Sports about the use of the green card.

He said: “We'd really like to clamp down on the dissent problem. Football has a problem with the lack of respect for referees. That's not to say that isn't also the case in CONIFA games - the players in our tournament still have those traits.

“But it would be nice that, instead of it being ignored and therefore in a way condoned, it shouldn't necessarily cost someone their chance to play at this tournament, if they just lose their cool.”

Jens Jockel, CONIFA’s Asia President added: “We have had some minor problems in the past, with some red cards at the end of a game - mostly when teams realised they can't keep up and find themselves losing heavily with 10 minutes left.

“It's a really good idea of how to sanction things that might not be worthy of a red card. More like personal mistakes - using swear words, disrespecting spectators and coaches and so on. It's a perfect way to find something in between.”