Soccer’s rule-making body, the International Football Association Board (IFAB), is to hold preliminary discussions at its next meeting on the use of sin bins and video replays to help referees, FIFA said yesterday.

FIFA emphasised that both proposals were included for discussion only and could be submitted for further examinations to IFAB’s two new advisory panels.

The items were “not yet at the stage of being considered...for decision in terms of alterations to the existing laws of the game,” world soccer’s governing body said.

The controversial “triple punishment”, where a player concedes a penalty, is sent off and then has to serve an automatic suspension, will also be on the agenda as a discussion item at the meeting in Zurich on March 1.

IFAB will also decide whether to allow male players to use headgear on religious grounds and permit so-called “rolling substitutions” in amateur and recreational football.

These would allow players who had been substituted to return to the pitch later in the match, a move designed to bring greater flexibility and maintain interest in grass-roots football.

FIFA president Sepp Blatter and his UEFA counterpart Michel Platini have both advocated the use of sin bins, in which players would sit out for five to ten minutes for certain offences.

The inclusion of video replays, which are used in other sports such as rugby and cricket, on the agenda is something of a surprise, however, as football has in general been wary of using any form of technology to help match officials.