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Pitch Creates Interactive ‘Sin Bins’ Video Series for The FA

Pitch Productions has conceived and created a “Sin Bins” content series to promote The Football Association’s decision to introduce temporary dismissals, aka ‘sin bins’, into all levels of grassroots football from the start of the 2019/2020 season.

The launch includes an interactive film produced by Pitch, which gives users the free choice to decide how the video ends, and deal with the consequences. The POV (point of view) style of the video immerses the viewer as it allows them to have a direct impact on the result of the content they watch, as well as feeling as if they are actively participating and experiencing what is playing out in front of them. The content rolled out on Twitter as a thread-venture, encouraging engagement and making it a really exciting release.

Lee Cheeney, Head of Productions, adds “We love a creative challenge at Pitch and this was the perfect opportunity for us to use a Sony Venice POV rig, which is attached to the body & a helmet. This creates a perfect POV shooting approach which immerses you making you feel like you are the Player, putting you in the centre of the action! That, coupled with the viewer being able to make their own interactive decisions, really supports The FA’s educational message and awareness. It also helped that our camera operator (rigged with all the equipment) scored a cracking goal in one take!”

Sin bins of 10 minutes will be issued at the discretion of referees as punishment for player behaviour, and will apply to all levels of grassroots football, including youth, veterans, and disability. The FA successfully piloted sin bins across 31 leagues during the 2017-18 and 2018-19 seasons as part of its commitment to improve the match day experience for all.

Mark Bullingham, Chief Commercial & Football Development Officer, said: “The introduction of sin bins is a positive step for grassroots football. They empower referees to issue punishment for dissent offences which will be served immediately.

“Dissent can either be by word or action and is an expression of disagreement with a referee’s decision making. It is an entirely unnecessary and ugly part of football, and our pilot phase showed that sin bins encourage players to be aware of their own actions and act as a greater deterrent to repeat offensive behaviour, which will improve the game for everyone involved.” Across the two-season trial period, results showed that 25 of 31 leagues showed an overall reduction in dissent.

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