HAS Sydney FC manager Graham Arnold has been caught out taking advantage of a loophole in A-League regulations, telling two of his players to intentionally pick up bookings against Melbourne City?

Both Josh Brillante and Brandon O’Neill picked up cautions in the second-half under instructions from their coach, meaning they will each miss Sydney’s next game away to Wellington Phoenix.

With two games to go of the regular season, the act means that they will not be at risk of a ban in the semi-final.

It’s a tactic that’s been seen in European football plenty of times before. For example, In 2010, Real Madrid duo Sergio Ramos and Xabi Alonso deliberately picked up second yellow cards for timewasting in a Champions League group game.

Under instructions from manager Jose Mourinho at the time, Alonso and Ramos were then suspended for Real’s final group game but were cleared to play in the knockout stages, having already served a ban.

“You’ve got to do what you’ve got to do,” said Fox Sports football expert Mark Bosnich. “If it’s in the regulations, you’ve got a problem, if not you haven’t. If it’s been picked up in the mics, it’s been picked up.

“They’ve obviously got an important game next week in breaking Brisbane Roar’s record and they don’t want their players missing the semi-final. The loop hole is there to be abused. I heard him in the post-game interview on Saturday and he mentioned that, but I thought he got mixed up in the way he was talking. But obviously he didn’t.

“Until it’s in the rules and regulations, he can do it.”