Red Card in Soccer: What It Means and What Happens Next
By the Poteau Team · updated
IN SHORT
A red card sends a player off for the rest of the game, and the team can't replace them, so it plays with one fewer. It's shown for serious foul play, violent conduct, spitting, offensive language, denying an obvious goal-scoring chance, or a second yellow card in the same game. The player is usually suspended for at least the next game too, depending on the competition.
What does a red card mean in soccer?
A red card is a sending-off. The player leaves the field for the rest of the game and can't be replaced, so the team plays with one fewer.
If a team drops below 7 players, the game can't go on (Law 3 of the Laws of the Game).
What gets you a red card
Law 12 lists the sending-off offenses:
Serious foul play: a tackle that endangers an opponent's safety.
Violent conduct, on or off the ball, against anyone.
Biting or spitting at someone.
Denying an obvious goal or goal-scoring chance with a deliberate handball (the keeper in their own box excepted).
Denying an obvious goal-scoring chance with a foul, in most cases.
Offensive, insulting or abusive language or gestures.
A second yellow card in the same game.
Straight red or second yellow
Two yellows in one game make a red, and the referee shows both cards one after the other.
The effect on the field is the same. The difference shows up later: competitions often punish a straight red more heavily than a second yellow.
What happens after the game
A red card usually brings a suspension of at least one game. The length is set by the competition, not by the Laws of the Game. Violent conduct or abuse of an official can mean several games or more.
Can a coach or a substitute get a red card?
Yes. Substitutes can be sent off from the bench, and since 2019 team officials can be shown yellow and red cards too.
Can VAR give a red card?
VAR can't show cards, but it can send the referee to the screen for a possible straight red. The referee then watches the replay and decides.
VAR does not review second yellows, only incidents that could be a direct red, a goal, a penalty or mistaken identity.
Where red and yellow cards come from
Cards arrived at the 1970 World Cup. English referee Ken Aston came up with them after a 1966 game where players didn't understand who had been cautioned. The idea came from traffic lights.
Before that, a referee told a player he was sent off, and language barriers made that messy.
In a pickup game
Most pickup games have no referee, so nobody shows cards. Players call their own fouls, and someone who keeps going in hard usually stops getting invited.
On Poteau, cards are about showing up. Dropping out of an almost full game at the last minute earns a yellow card. Two yellows make a red, and a red blocks access to the app.
The Poteau Team