Sin Bin - Definition and Overview

For the part of a football (soccer) pitch called the "box", see penalty area.

The penalty boxes in this ice hockey game are shown here. The one on the left is occupied while the one on the right is vacant.

The penalty box (commonly called the sin bin) is the area in ice hockey and rugby where a player sits to serve the time of a given Penalty. Teams are generally not allowed to replace players who have been sent to the penalty box.

In ice hockey a period in the box occurs for all penalties, unless the penalty is a misconduct penalty. 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.

In both codes of rugby, only penalties involving violent play, dangerous play, the committing of a professional foul or the committing of one offence repeately, result in a sin-binning; the referee usually signals such infringements by means of a yellow card (though this is not used in Australian rugby league). Often, if a team is committing one offence repeatedly, the referee will warn the team captain that the next time they commit that offence, the player responsible will be sent to the bin. Players are usually sent to the sin-bin for ten minutes at a time. For the most serious offences and for misconduct that is being repeated and not deterred by use of the sin-bin, the referee may send off players, who will play no further part in the game and leave their team a player short.