Five substitution option set to be made permanent at IFAB general meeting next month | Football News

The option to make five substitutions in a match is set to be made permanent by the game’s lawmakers next month.

The International Football Association Board (IFAB)’s annual general meeting will take place virtually on March 3. It is expected that the temporary dispensation to Law 3 to allow up to five changes in a game – introduced to help clubs manage congestion related to the Covid-19 pandemic – will be made a permanent option for competitions worldwide.

The wording of the offside law will also be discussed at the meeting, though it is understood it is very unlikely any changes to it will be ratified.

It follows a call from UEFA’s referees’ chief Roberto Rosetti in October to review its wording after a controversial goal by France’s Kylian Mbappe in the Nations League final against Spain, when a defender’s touch played him onside.

The meeting attendees will also be updated on trials of an alternative wording of the offside law, championed by FIFA’s chief of global football development, Arsene Wenger.

The former Arsenal manager had proposed that an attacker be ruled onside if any part of their body was level with the second-last defender.

A trial scheduled to take place in China had to be scrapped due to Covid-19.

There will also be an update on the use of semi-automated offside technology at the Arab Cup which took place in November and December last year.

It will not be down to the IFAB to decide whether to use the technology at the World Cup in Qatar later this year, because it is considered to be part of the existing VAR protocols.

FIFA, as competition organisers, will make the decision on whether it is used at the World Cup.

The annual business meeting of the IFAB decided last November to extend trials of additional permanent concussion substitutes through to August 2023, and this will be noted at the AGM.

‘This is the only country to not accept five substitutions’

The Premier League remains one of the only major competitions to still restrict its clubs to three substitutions per match, despite calls from a host of managers to fall in line with other leagues around the world and adopt the five-sub rule.

Last year, Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola spoke out about not being able to use five substitutions, saying: “This is the only country to not accept five substitutions, just three. Why?

“We want to protect the players, so bring five substitutions. It’s much better for the amount of games, but the Premier League and clubs decide no.

“If the players and managers come together and strike or something… just words won’t solve anything.

“UEFA, FIFA, the Premier League, the broadcasters, the business is more important than the welfare. A simple example is the five substitutions.

“If we talk about the welfare, if it’s just for the players, the association of players they say, ‘OK, we don’t play anymore until you solve this’. Maybe we need a strike for people to take attention.”