Marked cards

Football referees could be flashing Goalpoker.com red cards at Premiership football players next season as poker tries to teach the beautiful game to play fair.

Poker and football are two sports abhorrent of cheating but susceptible to rules being bent by less than scrupulous gamesmanship. Chip dumping and collusion can be as difficult to rule against as diving and shirt-tugging.

Goalpoker.com boss Nick Fitt has approached the Referees’ Association to sponsor their red and yellow cards to raise the issue of fair play in both football and poker. Fitt said: ‘[Diving] is like someone announcing all-in out of turn, just to get others to fold before the action reaches them. It’s no different.’

He added: ‘We’ve made the offer and we’re waiting to hear back from the Referees’ Association. Unfortunately the recent issue of certain England players’ alleged gambling problems may affect the deal, which would be a terrible shame.’

Unfortunately, the introduction of 10-minute sin bins for abusive language, a la Mike ‘The Mouth’ Matusow, is highly unlikely.