Football teams will be able to continue to make five changes per match until the end of 2022, a measure linked to the pandemic and extended until the World Cup included, announced Friday the International board (Ifab), guarantor of the laws of the This amendment to football “law 3”, usually providing for a maximum of three substitutions per match, was decided in May 2020 by Ifab and was to run until the end of 2021 for club competitions, and until July 31, 2022 for international meetings.
But after "global analysis of the current impact of Covid-19 on football", the board of directors of Ifab decided to extend it to "all high-level competitions to be completed before December 31 2022 ”, which will therefore include the World Cup played in Qatar from November 21 to December 18.
The objective remains, as for a year, to "support the well-being of the players, in particular when the calendars have been disrupted, which often leads to condensing the competitions", explains Ifab.
Soon a 6th change in case of suspected concussion?
If this rule change had been discussed in the spring of 2020, because it favors large teams with bloated staff, the debate quickly dried up as many clubs are seeing the exhaustion of their players.
At the same time, some competitions - such as the European Under-21 Championship - are testing a sixth replacement in the event of a suspected concussion, an experiment launched by Ifab at the end of 2020.
The guardians of the game will "continue to examine the impact of the pandemic on football and to consult" its various actors "on this important question", they promise in their press release.
Fifa holds four out of eight votes in Ifab decisions, the other four being the historic property of the English, Scottish, Welsh and Irish Federations.
Sport
Ligue 1: The rule of five changes, a revolution that poses a lot of questions
Sport
Euro 2021: UEFA allows 26 players per selection instead of the usual 23
World Cup 2022
Soccer
Sport
Rules