UEFA have taken a different stance to the Premier League
Five substitutes will be allowed in all UEFA competition for the 2020/21 season, the governing body have confirmed.
Despite the Premier League voting to return to three substitutes per game, UEFA have decided to stick with the rule change designed to mitigate some of the difficulties that came with restarting football after a Covid-induced hiatus.
The UEFA website states:
“The UEFA Executive Committee also decided to allow up to five substitutions for all matches played in the UEFA Nations League, the European Qualifiers play-offs, the UEFA Women’s EURO Qualifiers, the UEFA Champions League and the UEFA Europa League as from the group stage, and the UEFA Women’s Champions League, for the remainder of the season, in order to alleviate the burden on players caused by the condensed international match calendars 2020/21 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Consequently, the number of players allowed on the match sheet will be increased to 23, when this is not already the case.”
European football’s governing body also stated that it has decided “to recover the dates lost due to the cancellation of the March 2020 window and the postponement of EURO 2020 to the summer of 2021, by extending the March and September 2021 windows in the FIFA international match calendar so that three matches instead of two could be accommodated.”
This means that next year, the international breaks in March and early September will allow for three fixtures rather than the usual two.
