Bin the bin! That’s what the North Wales Coast FA has told FAW

Bin the bin – that’s the clear message from the North Wales Coast FA to the Football Association of Wales!

NWCFA councillor Chris O’Neal‘s proposal that the association withdraw from a trial scheme to implement sin-bins in one of its leagues has been backed by colleagues.

Since the start of the current season, the NWCFA-run North Wales Coast East Premier and the North East Wales FA League’s Reserve Division have been two of six divisions in Wales piloting ‘temporary dismissals’.

At a recent NWCFA full council meeting, Councillor O’Neal told members the experiment is not working and called on members to defy the FAW and scrap its participation in the trial.

The proposal was agreed by a majority and the Coast initially wrote to the FAW stating its intention to withdraw.

Although the FAW rejected the NWCFA’s decision, the Coast replied to the senior body insisting it would stick to its guns.

NWCFA president Bryan Roberts confirmed: “All I can say at this moment is that the majority of the full council requested that a letter be sent to FAW stating its intention to withdraw from the trial scheme.

“As far as I am aware we have received a response, but before a final decision is made they have asked to have a discussion with the NWCFA on the way forward.”

It was agreed earlier this summer that sin-bins be trialed in six senior football grassroots leagues in Wales this season in a move to reduce instances of dissent and abuse towards match officials.

The tier 4 North Wales Coast East Premier Division and North East Wales Reserve League were chosen in the north.

The decision to implement the trials was approved by the FAW’s Community Game Board following consultation with representatives of the six Welsh Area Associations and discussion with the English Football Association, where the system has been in place for several seasons at grassroots level.

The leagues, clubs, coaches, players and referees involved in the trial were to be offered training on temporary dismissals before the start of the 2023/2024 season.

Cllr O’Neal told Grassroots North Wales: “The FAW asked initially if anybody wanted to volunteer. The league (North Wales Coast East Premier) did volunteer but then after volunteering the FAW put conditions.

“One of the big conditions was that it was going to cost an extra £12 if a player went in the sin-bin. So the clubs themselves were a bit aggrieved with it.

“The FAW didn’t give the Coast a plan of how it was going to work prior, they just hit them with it after. And the cost element is massive for the clubs – especially at that league’s level.”

Cllr O’Neal added: “A lot of the referees in that league are either finishing their careers or just starting out. How do they expect new start referees to manage or game-manage that when you’ve got maybe 3 or 4 sin-bins all at 10 minutes each, all at different times.

“You’ve got no linesmen to help you out, you’ve got nothing. So that didn’t work at all, or wasn’t going to work.

“The FAW’s stance on it is: ‘well it works in other leagues’ ‘ – well it does, it works in junior football – it’s not so bad in junior football, but in senior football it hasn’t worked.

“If the FAW wanted to run this as a trial, would it have not been best trialling it in the (Cymru) Premier League or Tier 2? In Tier 2 they’ve got 3 match officials – not one on their own.

“As for fairness, if there’s three players in the bin, all at different times, and they’re all supposed to be there for 10 minutes, and the referee hasn’t clocked it properly, what happens when the opposing team score and a player then says ‘I was supposed to come out of the bin two minutes ago’ – it puts them at an unfair advantage.

“My proposal was quite clear……… ‘bin the bin’ – and all the members of the council agreed.

“For the interests of the clubs and the interests of the fact that it wasn’t going to work and wasn’t working, (I proposed) that we got rid of it.

“The FAW can come back and say ‘you can’t do it’ but then it’s a case of our association will have to fight it and stand strong for what we believe in – and we believe in supporting the clubs.”