To promote recovery and protect athletes, FIFA proposed to temporarily allow five replacements.
Only a few hours after rumors about the possibility of having five Premier League changes to help the championship resume, FIFA has clearly opened the door to this opportunity in a statement sent to the Reuters agency. Teams will only have three slots to make their changes – plus the half-time break – in order to avoid too many game interruptions.
«During their recovery, the competitions will certainly have to face a very busy schedule with a higher frequency of matches» explains the FIFA press release. Player safety is one of FIFA’s top priorities. One of our concerns is that the higher frequency of games than usual can lead to a risk of injury due to overload.”
In view of this and the challenge faced by all the competitions following the postponement of the calendar according to the original timetable, FIFA proposes that a greater number of substitutions be temporarily authorised, at the decision of the competent organiser » he adds. In competitions where fewer than five replacements are currently allowed, each team would now have the option of using up to five replacements during the game, with the possibility of an additional replacement remaining during the extensions, if applicable.”
Source : Footempo