Bring on sin-bins in football, but more VAR? They must be joking

THERE is lingering and understandable fury from Tottenham Hotspur supporters today about the challenge by Aston Villa's Matty Cash on Rodrigo Bentancur at the weekend, after it emerged last night that the Uruguayan midfielder will be sidelined for two-and-a-half months with torn ankle ligaments.

- Dan Kilpatrick

Cash clattered Bentancur 30 minutes into Villa's 2-1 win in north London on Sunday, with Spurs leading at the time, in a rash tackle which made no attempt to play the ball.

He was rightly booked and Bentancur, who was making his first club start in nine months following ACL surgery, was unable to continue.

Spurs supporters, players and bench were left seething, while Bentancur felt Cash deserved a red card.

Under the letter of the current law, a yellow card was the right call. Cash's tackle was not inherently dangerous, it was merely cynical, breaking up a promising Spurs' counter-attack.

These types of tackle, known as professional fouls, happen every weekend in elite football and are employed as a deliberate tactic by even the most successful and attractive teams.

They are part of the game, albeit an ugly one.

It is hard, therefore, to quibble with the news that trials of sin-bins for cynical fouls, as well as dissent, are to be introduced in professional football potentially in the FA Cup or Women's Super League.