Yellow cards, red cards and suspensions explained
A yellow card is a caution and a red card is a sending-off: the player leaves the pitch and the team carries on one short. Two yellow cards in the same match add up to a red. What happens after the match – how many games a player misses – is not in the Laws of the Game at all; it is set by each competition's own regulations.
What the Laws of the Game cover
Law 12 is the same wherever football is played. It tells the referee which offences deserve a caution and which a sending-off. Cards can be shown to players, substitutes, substituted players and team officials such as coaches. The referee's authority to show them runs from the moment they enter the field for the pre-match inspection until they leave it after the final whistle – a penalty shoot-out included.
Yellow card: cautionable offences
A player is cautioned for:
- delaying the restart of play;
- dissent by word or action;
- entering, re-entering or deliberately leaving the field without the referee's permission;
- failing to respect the required distance at a corner, free kick or throw-in;
- persistent offences;
- unsporting behaviour – for example simulation, a reckless challenge, or stopping a promising attack with a foul or a handball;
- entering the referee review area, or excessively making the "TV signal" for a VAR review.
Red card: sending-off offences
A player is sent off for:
- denying a goal or an obvious goal-scoring opportunity by a handball offence or by a foul;
- serious foul play;
- biting or spitting;
- violent conduct;
- offensive, insulting or abusive language or actions;
- receiving a second caution in the same match;
- entering the video operation room.
A sent-off player must leave the vicinity of the field and the technical area, and cannot be replaced. If a team is reduced to fewer than seven players, the match cannot start or continue.
The second yellow
Imagine a Tottenham midfielder is cautioned at West Ham for a reckless tackle in the first half and then, late on, kicks the ball away to waste time. That is a second caution: the referee shows the yellow card, then the red. Tottenham finish with ten.
On a live score both events are recorded. The match page lists the cards in the events timeline, and the statistics show them in the "Yellow cards" and "Red cards" rows – a point picked up in our guide on how to read match stats, because a sending-off changes how every number after it should be read.
Denying a goal-scoring opportunity: red or yellow?
The best-known sending-off offence has an important exception.
| Situation | Card |
|---|---|
| A foul or handball denies an obvious goal-scoring opportunity outside the penalty area | Red |
| Inside the offender's own area, penalty awarded, and the foul was an attempt to play the ball or a challenge for the ball | Yellow |
| Inside the area, penalty awarded, but the offence was holding, pulling, pushing or there was no possibility of playing the ball | Red |
The logic is that a penalty already restores the scoring chance, so a fair attempt to win the ball is not punished twice over. A shirt-pull, on the other hand, was never an attempt to play the ball.
Changes for 2026/27
Three points from this season's law changes touch on discipline:
- A goalkeeper who holds the ball for more than eight seconds concedes a corner kick to the opponents. The referee counts down the last five seconds with a raised hand.
- If the referee plays advantage after an offence that denied an obvious goal-scoring opportunity and a goal is scored, the offender is neither cautioned nor sent off.
- The guideline under which only the captain may approach the referee is a competition option for now, and becomes compulsory for all competitions from 1 July 2027.
On the video side, a red card that results from a clearly incorrect second yellow can now be reviewed, although ordinary yellow cards still cannot. See VAR explained for the detail.
Cards and the penalty shoot-out
Cautions from the match are not carried into a penalty shoot-out. A player cautioned during the 120 minutes and cautioned again during the kicks is not sent off. A player who was sent off during the match, however, cannot take part. The full procedure is in our guide to added time, extra time and penalties.
Suspensions: the competition decides
This is the part that surprises people: the Laws of the Game say nothing about suspensions for later matches. How many matches a red card costs, and how many yellow cards add up to a ban, is set by each competition's regulations and its disciplinary bodies.
That has three practical consequences.
- Thresholds differ. The number of yellow cards that triggers a ban is different from one competition to the next, and so are the points in the season at which the count is wiped clean.
- Cards usually count separately per competition. Yellow cards collected in a league are normally not added to those collected in a cup or in Europe.
- Red-card bans vary in length. How long a player sits out is decided under the competition's rules and by its disciplinary bodies.
For the Premier League, the domestic cups and every other national competition, the figures are published in that competition's disciplinary rules, and that is the place to check them.
The UEFA club competitions in 2026/27
The one set of thresholds we can state precisely is UEFA's, from Article 63 of the Champions League regulations; the Europa League regulations carry the same article.
| Case | Consequence |
|---|---|
| Red card | Automatic suspension for the next match in UEFA club competition; UEFA's disciplinary bodies can increase it for serious offences |
| Yellow cards before the league phase (qualifying rounds and play-offs) | Suspension after the 3rd yellow card, then after the 5th, the 7th and so on |
| Yellow cards from the first league-phase match | Suspension for the next match after the 4th yellow card, then after the 6th, the 8th and so on |
The league-phase threshold is new this season – it was previously the third yellow card. There are also two clean-slate points. All yellow cards and pending yellow-card suspensions expire once the play-offs are completed, so nothing is carried into the league phase. All yellow cards then expire again on completion of the quarter-finals, so they are not carried into the semi-finals. Whatever is left expires at the end of the season.
Suppose a Manchester City defender collects his fourth yellow card of the league phase in the Champions League. He misses the club's next match in the competition and, once back, would next be suspended after a sixth caution. Our Champions League format guide explains how the league phase and the knockout rounds fit together.
Following cards on ScoreMondo
Yellow and red cards appear in the match events as they happen and in the statistics rows. A red card is one of the default notification types when you follow a match or a team, and yellow cards can be switched on as an option. If a sending-off is cancelled after a review, the timeline shows "Red card overturned (VAR)". You can watch all of this on the live matches page, or pick a competition from the full list of leagues.
Frequently asked questions
How many matches is a red card worth?
It depends on the competition. The Laws only deal with the match in which the card is shown. In UEFA club competitions a red card brings an automatic one-match suspension that can be increased; domestic competitions set their own lengths in their disciplinary rules.
Do yellow cards carry over between the league and the cups?
Usually not – cards normally count separately in each competition – but that is a matter for the regulations of the competitions concerned, so check the rules of the one you are following.
Can a substitute or a coach be shown a card?
Yes. Substitutes, substituted players and team officials can all be cautioned or sent off.
Is a second yellow treated differently from a straight red?
On the day, no: either way the player is off and cannot be replaced. Afterwards, the length of any suspension is for the competition's rules and disciplinary bodies to decide.
Does a yellow card from the match count in a penalty shoot-out?
No. Cautions are not carried into the shoot-out, so a second caution received during the kicks does not produce a red card.
Can a red card be taken back during the match?
Where VAR is in use, a direct red card can be reviewed, and since 2026/27 so can a red that follows a clearly incorrect second yellow. If the referee changes the decision, ScoreMondo shows it as "Red card overturned (VAR)".