History was made in Italy’s Serie B this week, after Vicenza’s Cristian Galano received football’s first ever green card.
The green card, which is awarded for fair play, is an initiative that the league’s officials announced they were introducing at the beginning of the season. The player who is awarded the most green cards will receive an award at the end of the campaign.
Vicenza’s Galano was awarded the green card after admitting that no Vitrus Entella defenders had touched the ball when his team were awarded a corner kick.
Andrea Abodi, President of Serie B, says the cards are largely symbolic and are part of a plan to clean up the league’s image, after it was tarnished by a match fixing scandal at the beginning of the season.
“It’s a symbolic award. It could be something very simple. The important thing is to recognise it when a professional does something exemplary.”
It’ll be interesting to see how the initiative pans out and if it ends up catching on in other leagues around Europe.
