Sean Dyche: Everton manager says “leave the game alone” after sin-bin plans

Football’s decision-makers need to “leave the game alone”, says Everton boss Sean Dyche, following plans to trial 10-minute sin-bins in the sport.

“I don’t think it is needed,” Toffees manager Dyche told BBC Sport.

Dyche has also called to “leave referees alone” after discussions about the use of VAR and its issues.

The former Burnley manager has called for the streamlining of the VAR process by removing the pitchside monitor and said it is causing “mayhem” after Sunday’s 3-0 home defeat by Manchester United.

It has been recommended by the International Football Association Board (Ifab) that an announcement by the referee of the final decision after a VAR review should be included in the laws of the game.

Asked if it will help the communication with fans inside stadiums, Dyche said “I can’t see that. The best refereeing performances are the ones you don’t notice.

“Leave referees alone – I say take everything away, take the screen away, the noise away and let them get on with their job.

“There is a suggestion that it would allow the fans to understand but, most stadiums I have been in, the fans don’t understand just because a referee has given an opinion. That is unlikely to quell a fanbase when there are 40-50,000 in attendance.”

Sin-bins have been trialled at grassroots level since 2019 and Ifab said it will “identify which levels are best to test”.

Dyche added: “I don’t know why they don’t leave the game alone at times, I don’t think it is needed. I don’t think it is wanted, personally, but fans might have a different view. How are you going to manage it?

“If a player goes off the pitch, how are you going to manage that? The health and safety? Is he warming up or is he allowed to sit down? Does he have to stay sitting down? Does he get two minutes out of the 10 to warm up again?

“I am serious, this is how the world has gone. It is an odd thing to consider but if it is brought in then that is the way it goes.”

FFP rules ‘not fit for purpose’

Everton are 19th in the Premier League table, five points adrift of safety, after being docked 10 points for breaching financial rules.

Former Everton chief executive Keith Wyness says the top-flight’s Financial Fair Play rules are not “fit for purpose” and feels a “new formula” needs to be found to create less “mess”.

Wyness was asked for a solution and told BBC Radio Merseyside: “There are many different factors in football, but trying to get to some kind of wage cap or a definite cost is the only way that is going to happen.

“It has been tried in American sport and the closest way we can get to some kind of balance within the game. It is a very difficult problem.”

This season in America’s NFL, teams were given a salary cap limit of £177.6m that they can spend on players on their rosters.

The Premier League did not respond to comment when asked by BBC Sport.

Meanwhile, Everton will submit a formal appeal to the independent commission which handed them the biggest sporting sanction in top-flight history before Friday’s deadline.

Their case relates to interest payments on the building of the club’s new £760m stadium at Bramley Moore Dock, which they believe were permissible ‘add backs’ for profit and sustainability calculations in the 2021-22 financial year.

But the commission disagreed and did not accept the club’s claim of mitigating factors.

“I would be very surprised if there wasn’t some reduction in the penalty,” added Wyness, who was in charge at Everton between 2004 and 2009.

“I am hoping they see the flaws in their decision-making – they did not accept the mitigating factors correctly, they make it a suspended points deduction and there is a bigger financial penalty. It should be reduced at the very least.

“The problem is that Everton did admit guilt so that should be taken into account. It may not have been the biggest breach ever because even £1 [over] is a breach, so that has to be accepted.”

Dyche added: “The club have got it in hand and doing what they need to do. Who knows what will happen after the first part, we can only do what we can do.”