Fifa is preparing to introduce a second yellow card amnesty at this summer's World Cup in a bid to protect key players from suspension. The governing body will wipe all bookings after the group stage as well as after the quarter-finals, BBC Sport understands. The change addresses concerns about the expanded 48-team format.

Under the current system, any player collecting two bookings across five matches leading to the quarter-finals receives a one-match ban. With six fixtures now required to reach the last eight, officials worry that many star players could miss critical knockout matches. The expanded tournament creates more opportunities for bookings to accumulate across the additional round of 32.

Rather than raising the suspension threshold to three bookings, Fifa's solution involves implementing two strategic amnesty points. This concentrates disciplinary risk into just two narrow windows—either across the three group games or across the round of 32, last 16 and quarter-final stages.

The proposal goes before the FIFA Council in Vancouver on Tuesday, with the two-booking suspension threshold remaining unchanged. The modification drastically reduces the match periods where players risk missing games.