Connect with us

Late Tackle

SEEING RED AND YELLOW: Sam Todd on how football’s cards came about and the man behind them

Sam Todd traces the story of football’s red and yellow cards, from Ken Aston’s inspired idea at a London traffic light to their introduction in the English game and the debate over how the sport should be policed.

When Britain’s first automatic traffic lights were erected at Piccadilly Circus on August 3, 1926, few could have imagined that a piece of road-management technology would transform football’s disciplinary system.

Yet those three-colour motoring signals formed the basis for red and yellow cards, which eventually made their debut in the English game on October 2, 1976.
Blackburn Rovers winger Dave Wagstaffe was the first to see red that afternoon when he was given his marching orders after 36 minutes for arguing with the referee during a second tier match at Leyton Orient, closely followed b...

Continue reading...

Access all our premium content for less than 50p per week!

SUBSCRIBE

Already a subscriber to our website? Login

Related Topics

Add us as a Preferred Source on Google

 

Tackle the News

- Sign Up to our Football Fanzine Newsletter

Your subscription could not be saved. Please try again.
Your subscription has been successful.
free bets

More in Late Tackle