White cards are issued for the first time in Portuguese football.
The card was shown during Saturday’s Women’s Cup match between Sporting Lisbon and Benfica, when Benfica led 3-0 at half-time when medical staff from both clubs rushed to help a man who had passed out in the stands fans on.
Referee Catarina Campos then showed the cards to both teams.
The gesture recognizes and praises the act of fair play.
The fans at the Luz Stadium in Lisbon were heard cheering and applauding the decision.
The cards are part of Portugal’s national sportsmanship program to encourage fair play and have been adopted by the Portuguese Football Federation.
So far, only Portugal has adopted the white card.
They compare yellow cards with red cards to punish players for misconduct.
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Benfica won 5-0 and advanced to the semi-finals.
The game also set a new attendance record for the Portuguese women’s football team, with 15,032 fans in attendance, beating the previous record of 14,221 set in May last year.
While the use of white cards in Saturday’s game was celebrated, it remains to be seen how fans will view their implementation if they are more widely used.
It follows a FIFA directive to add stoppage time at the end of each half for “unnatural loss of time” during the World Cup in Qatar.
Suspensions were added for players wasting time, treatment for injuries, prolonged goal celebrations, substitutions, VAR interventions and yellow or red cards.