Yellow and red cards
A card is the disciplinary sanction shown by the referee to a player: yellow is a caution, red an immediate sending-off. Two yellow cards in the same match mean a red: the player leaves the pitch and his team finishes with ten men.
A yellow card punishes, among other things, unsporting behaviour, dissent, persistent fouling, deliberately delaying the restart or a foul that stops a promising attack. A straight red targets serious foul play, violent conduct, offensive language or denying an obvious goal-scoring opportunity. A player who is sent off cannot be replaced.
Cards have consequences beyond the match. A red card brings at least a one-match ban, and accumulated yellows are punished under each competition's own rules: in UEFA club competitions, for instance, a player is suspended for the next match on his third caution. These bans change line-ups and matter when analysing a fixture.
Cards are also offered as markets by betting operators: total cards, player to be booked or « booking points », where a yellow is often worth 10 points and a red 25, a scale that varies by operator. The number of cards depends heavily on the referee, what is at stake and how the match unfolds, which makes them very hard to anticipate.
Example
A match has 3 yellow cards and 1 straight red. With a scale of 10 points per yellow and 25 per red, the booking points total is 3 × 10 + 25 = 55; in number of cards, the count is 4. Depending on the operator, a second yellow followed by a red may be counted differently.
How Elofoot uses it
Elofoot does not calculate any card probabilities. The AI analysis does, however, list suspended players (after a red card or accumulated yellows) among the absentees: they are left out of the probable line-ups and of the selected goalscorers, and the write-up takes them into account.
Frequently asked questions
- Do two yellow cards make a red?
- Yes. On a second caution in the same match, the referee shows the yellow then the red: the player is sent off and cannot be replaced.
- How many yellow cards before a suspension?
- It depends on the competition. In UEFA club competitions, for example, the ban comes on the third caution; each league sets its own thresholds.
- How do booking points work?
- Each card is worth points, often 10 for a yellow and 25 for a red. The exact scale and how a double yellow is treated vary by operator.
See also
Go further
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