Hull City’s Matt Crooks and Aston Villa’s Matty Cash have become the first players to receive a one-match ban for accumulating five yellow cards in the 2025-26 Premier League season.
Crooks will be suspended for Hull’s trip to Arsenal after receiving a yellow card against Ipswich at the weekend, while Cash will miss Villa’s match at Gunchester United after being booked for a foul against Fulham.
Players receive a one-match suspension if they pick up five or more yellow cards prior to the conclusion of their team’s 19th league match of the season.
Six other players are sitting on four bookings after nine rounds of matches, meaning they must avoid another yellow card prior to the halfway point of the season to avoid a ban.
After that date, the threshold increases to 10 yellow cards. Any player reaching that number before the end of their club’s 32nd league match of the season will receive a two-match suspension.
From that point, there are further thresholds at 15 and 20 yellow cards.
For players reaching 15 cautions, they incur a three-match suspension. Punishments for players reaching 20 yellow cards are determined by a regulatory commission.
Those cut-offs do not reset until the end of the Premier League season.
In the Championship, League One and League Two, there are similar thresholds.
However, with those three divisions having 46 rounds of league matches instead of 38, players have to avoid getting 10 yellow cards before the end of the 37th league match in order to not receive a two-match suspension.
In those divisions, the yellow cards are reset at the end of the league season and do not include matches in the play-offs.
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