Today, the Football Association of Professional Players Association discussed the possibility of shortening game times in the event of a resumption of football activity this summer, in light of the continued spread of the Corona epidemic. The Premier League is currently in talks with medical experts, the government, club representatives and players, to find a way to end the season that has stopped since the ninth of March, and which remains nine stages.
It remains the establishment of matches without an audience and in a specified number of stadiums in order to avoid the risk of infection with the virus, among the assumptions for the completion of the season. "We don't know the future. What we do know are the suggestions that have been made and the possibility of getting more substitutions, and that the matches will not necessarily take place for 45 minutes in each half," Gordon Taylor, president of the Association of Players, told the BBC.
This proposal must be approved by the International Football Association (IFAP), which legislates the laws of the game, for adoption in various national and national championships.
FIFA has proposed at the end of last April that the number of substitutions per game be increased from three in force in the current laws to five, in addition to the goalkeeper, in order to reduce the physical burden on players who will undoubtedly have to face a crowded schedule of matches In case they want to end the season this summer.
On Friday, a new general assembly is held for the parties involved in the English Premier League, and Taylor has expressed the hope that "after that the return to work document will be completed and that as soon as possible, the players and coaches will be informed."
"The feasibility of all these measures will be studied with each club separately," he added. The association expressed last Friday its desire to end the season by playing the remaining 92 games in the league, while confirming that the players and coaches will play a "major role" in preparing the return to play plan.