Pardew, not shy of touchline infringements having been in trouble with the FA on four previous occasions, will not be allowed in the stadium for the first three games and will be banned from the touchline for the next four.
What I'm going to look at is how crucial is the technical area in football?
In other sports it plays a significant part for head coaches. In American Football the coach plays the most crucial role in the whole operation. They call the plays, with the help of specialist coaches, and are constantly interacting with members of the squad.
With the stop start nature of American Football it is crucial that the coach uses this time to orchestrate their plans.
Is their need for this level of interaction with players in the beautiful game?
In Rugby Union manages sit in boxes or in the stands away from the action as they put faith in their players and use the week before to fully prepare them.
However, the formations in rugby is rigid and cannot be changed, where as football you can have any formation you want. Also in rugby the coaches are down on the touchline interacting at all times.
The main issue with managers is their interactions with the referees on the sideline. It is perfectly fine them sorting out tactics and interacting with their players but often Managers can lose their cool and lash out at referees.
Ian Holloway speaks about this issue in a very reassuring and frank manner. This video was taken before Crystal Palace played Manchester United, back when he managed Palace. He speaks about how it's not the end of the world because he can give team talks before and at half time, he has the chance to prepare them and speak to coaches who had to make the decisions at his expense. However, being the passionate man he is he wants to do as much as possible to help his team:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88Y_LsGlHVk
Managers do not need necessarily need to be there to make an impact on the game and due to the frequent infringements that occur across all leagues (I was unable to find statistics but there were thousands of news articles about touchline bans).
However, there will be uproar amongst managers and will there will be major backing of the LMA to stop any move to take managers away from the technical areas even though they do more harm than good there.
