World football governing body Fifa is proposing five substitutions per match in order to help football teams, especially clubs who could face congested match schedule when football activities resume.
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, all the major league bodies across the world have suspended football season in their countries since March in line with lockdown order from government authorities.
This means that the football season is already almost two months short of its regular time of completion which is usually June 31st at most.
Before the season can resume, government, especially health authorities have to give the go-ahead for the league bodies to do so. However, based on the high number of coronavirus infections that are still being recorded across the world, especially in Europe, early resumption is not looking feasible yet.
Nonetheless, in order to make up for the lost time when football finally resumes, the league bodies might come up with congested schedules which would subject the players to an extremely stressful routine. This is where the proposed 5 substitutions per match come in to ease such stress.
5 Substitutions: How will it work?
In any competition where less than five substitutions are currently allowed, teams can now use up to five substitutions which are allowable within a maximum of three slots, as well as during half-time.
The possibility of an additional sixth substitution during extra-time will remain.
This proposed change in Fifa books is temporarily and could run until the end of the 2020-2021 football season before it could be cancelled or relaxed. Also, the dispensation will be given to all national team games until 31 December 2021.
The proposed change will have to be approved by the International Football Association Board, football’s rule-making body before it can be implemented by organisers for competitions.
“Football should only resume when the health authorities and governments say it is absolutely safe and non-disruptive of health services being delivered to the populations”, a Fifa spokesman told BBC Sport.
“Safety of the players is one of Fifa‘s main priorities. One concern in this regard is that the higher-than-normal frequency of matches may increase the risk of potential injuries due to a resulting player overload.”
