Today marks 50 years since the yellow and red cards were first introduced into the Football League as we know it today, but why were they introduced and what impact did have they have on the game?
Referees already had power to remove people from the pitch, but the reason that the red and yellow card system was introduced was to put a stop to the confusion.
Therefore, it made it easier for people to understand the referees decision.
The red and yellow card system was first introduced in the 1970 Mexico World Cup, by an English referee called Ken Aston, who came up with the idea whilst driving home, stuck at a junction watching the traffic lights.
The first ever yellow card was given to Evgeny Lovchev of the Soviet Union against Mexico.
Although they were introduced for the 1970 World Cup, it wasn’t until four years later, at the 1974 World Cup in West Germany, when the first red card was given out.
Carlos Caszely went down in history for all the wrong reasons, as he received two yellow cards for Chile against the host nation.
The first referee to give out a red card was the Turkish national, Dogan Badacan.
Although the card system was introduced in 1970, it wasn’t until six years later, on October 2 where English football got its first taste of the card system.
Both Blackburn Rovers’ David Wagstaffe, for arguing with the referee, and Fulham’s George Best, swearing at the referee, got sent off in one second division game.
However, the FA then removed the red card in 1981 due to the increase in a ‘show off’ attitude that the referees had developed.
They were they then re-introduced for the start of the 1987-88 season under instruction from FIFA saying that English football had to realign themselves with the rest of the world’s game.
The modern game is no stranger to a red card, with the most red cards across the EFL coming in the 2006/07 season, with 319. Data began for all three leagues at the start of the 2004/05 season.
The least amount being in the 2025/26 season with 198 red cards, this was also the first season to have less than 200 red cards shown.
Yellow cards are also a common occurrence in recent years, with there being 6265 cautions that were given out in the 2025/26 season.
There has been an increase in the number of cards being handed out. Only 4719 were given out across the three leagues in the 2002/03 season. Whilst the lowest number of yellow cards handed out across the EFL was 4335 in the 2007/08 season.
The most yellow cards given out in one season was the 2023/24 season, with 6741 being handed out.