- India to face New Zealand in World Test Championship final at Lord’s
- India vs England, 4th Test: India Crush England To Win Series 3-1, Qualify For World Test Championship Final
- Mark Pavelich, 1980 ‘Miracle on Ice’ Team USA gold-medal winner, dead at 63
- Chiefs’ Anthony Sherman announces retirement after 10 seasons
- Man City vs Man Utd: Manchester derby Pitch to Post Preview podcast special
Football’s Five Substitutes Rule Extended By One Year
- Updated: July 15, 2020
- 162

An interim rule allowing football teams to use five substitutes per match during the schedule congestion caused by the coronavirus pandemic was extended Wednesday through next season.
Sport’s law-making panel, known as IFAB, said the option of using two extra replacements would continue in the 2020-21 season and for national team competitions into next August, when the Tokyo Olympic tournaments end.
The decision fulfills some goals in a proposal by FIFA in April which wanted to extend the rule through 2021 for all national team games and calendar-year domestic leagues.
FIFA said its plan would help prevent some injuries caused by “potential player overload” as competitions catch up with a backlog of games.
IFAB cited “the impact on player welfare of competitions being played in a condensed period and in different weather conditions.”
Competition organizers have the option of letting their teams use five substitutes instead of three in 90 minutes, and a sixth in knockout games that go to extra time.
Teams are still limited to three stoppages of play in 90 minutes to make the changes.