The all-Swedish teams make so many more changes

2019 is the latest season in the Allsvenskan with three allowed changes.

According to figures from the statistics company Gracenote, which SVT Sport has read, a total of 1329 changes were made during the 240 games played that season.

The following year, the rule change debuted, which means the chance for five changes per team.

During that season, 1850 changes were made, which is an increase of almost 40 percent from 2019.

- That sounds reasonable.

You take the chance to make changes, for various reasons in the matches, of course.

It can be about guarding a lead or to catch up with a disadvantage, says Svante Samuelsson, sports manager at Swedish Elite Football, to SVT Sport.

"Now a decision has been made ..."

The change came about as a special rule during the pandemic and remains today.

- Now, however, a decision has been made to make this rule permanent internationally.

There is much to suggest that the rule will be permanent in Sweden in the future as well.

According to Samuelsson, a survey has been conducted among clubs in Europe where they have mainly presented three arguments for maintaining the rule.

- First and foremost that the clubs can give more playing time to young players.

The second is that in terms of load, it also means that the team can distribute the playing time to

players.

And of course the coach can make more tactical changes during the match.

- I have had a dialogue with sports managers in Sweden and I would say that these are the strongest main arguments here as well.

"Affected marginally"

The obvious negative effect, which some may think exists, is that it destroys the match rhythm, says Samuelsson.

He points out that the changes can be used to slow down.

- But since there are still three exchange opportunities, we think it has worked well.

It has affected marginally.

After all, there are as many interruptions and the referee adds (additional time) the time it takes to change additional players during that interruption.

Teams far down the table may not benefit as much from players four, five or six on the bench as the top teams.

Does the approach to the rule differ depending on which club you ask?

- I have no idea that it differs like that.

The general picture is that the clubs are positive about the opportunity.