Penalty box

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For information on the area of a football (soccer) pitch colloquially called the "penalty box", see Penalty area.

A rugby player being sent to the "sin bin"

The penalty box (sometimes called the sin bin^[1], bad box,^[2] or bin) is the area in ice hockey, rugby football and some other sports where a player sits to serve the time of a given penalty, for an offence not severe enough to merit outright expulsion from the contest. Teams are generally not allowed to replace players who have been sent to the penalty box.^[3]

[edit] Ice hockey

The penalty boxes in this ice hockey arena are between the center red line and one of the blue lines. In the photo, only the left-hand box is occupied.

In ice hockey a period in the box occurs for all penalties, unless the infraction is a misconduct penalty or has resulted in the awarding of a penalty shot. If three or more players are serving penalties at once, the team will continue playing with three on the ice but will not be allowed to use the players in the box until their penalties expire.

When a team has a player serving a 2-minute penalty, and an overall disadvantage in the number of players on the ice, the opposing team is said to be on a power play. If they score during that time, the time remaining in that particular penalty is discarded and the player may return to the ice if that player has a 2-minute minor penalty. In the case of a double-minor 4-minute, two minutes are subtracted and if the time remaining is not equal or less than zero, the player must remain in the box. No time is subtracted for a goal on a 5-minute major penalty. Goaltenders never go to the penalty box, and would either have their penalty time served by proxy, usually being taken by the team captain, or face a penalty shot in the case of a 5-minute major penalty.

[edit] Rugby football

In both codes of rugby (rugby union and rugby league), only penalties involving violent play, dangerous play, professional fouls or repetitive commission of a specific offence result in a sin binning, where the offending player must spend 10 minutes off the field. In rugby union sevens, the sending-off period is 2 minutes, which as a percentage of match time is actually a more severe penalty, as a normal sevens match lasts only 14 minutes instead of the 80 used in 15-man union or 13-man league. During this time, the offender's team must play with one less player. The referee usually signals such infringements by displaying a yellow card (this is not used in Australian rugby league, where referees display a two open hands, ten fingers, signifying ten minutes, above their heads). Often, if a team is committing one offence repeatedly, the referee will warn the captain that the next time they commit that offence, the player responsible will be sent to the bin. For the most serious offences and/or repeated misconduct, the referee may send off players, who take no further part in the game and leave their team a player short.

[edit] Other sports

Lacrosse, handball, Ringette, and field hockey utilise penalty boxes, as does International Rules football - which is a slight anomaly since penalty boxes are native to neither of the sports from which International Rules was conceived, namely Gaelic football and Australian rules football.

Yellow cards used in 11-a-side football for a caution are replaced in small sided football by a blue card, indicating a "timed suspension"

Proposals to introduce penalty boxes in association football (soccer) have been discussed by the International Football Association Board [1], but so far have never proceeded beyond discussion. Some Indoor soccer leagues and competitions already utilise them at 11-a-side level. All small sided football (i.e., 5-, 6- and 7-a-side), "timed suspensions" are used, and indicated by a blue card, instead of the traditional yellow for a caution. Periods of suspensions vary depending on the match length (e.g., a 25-minute-half match has a suspension of 5 minutes) and are defined in the competition's rules.^[4]

[edit] See also

• Penalty (rugby)
• Professional foul

[edit] References