Mueez Ajao
– The use of five substitutes will be introduced into the laws of the game when football’s lawmakers, the International Football Association Board, meet in Doha on Monday.
– The rule was brought in during May 2020 because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
– It will now implemented prior to the 2022-23 season at the discretion of the organisers of a competition.
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– Ifab’s agenda also includes discussing concussion substitutes and semi-automated offside technology.
– The Premier League became the only major competition not to continue with five substitutions and go back to a maximum of three in a match for the 2020-21 season.
– Some clubs felt it gave those with bigger squads an unfair advantage and it was not brought in for the 2021-22 season either, despite Ifab recommending that five substitutions be implemented permanently in the sport in October 2021.
– However, Premier League clubs agreed to allow five substitutions for 2022-23 following a vote in March.
– Ifab says the substitutions can be made on three occasions during a match, excluding any changes at half-time, while a potential sixth change can be made if a match goes to extra time.
– In terms of concussion substitutes and semi-automated offside technology, they will only be discussion points during the Ifab meeting in Doha.
– Ifab approved a trial in December 2020 which only allowed for permanent concussion substitutions, although the Professional Footballers’ Association has called for temporary substitutions to be brought in as part of the testing.
– Fifa has held trials of semi-automated offside technology at the Fifa Club World Cup and the Fifa Arab Cup and could use it at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar later this year.
– It works by using 10 dedicated cameras, as well as several television cameras, which collect up to 29 data points for every player 50 times per second.
– “We’re continuing a test to try to achieve the objective: to have more accurate decisions and also quicker decisions in offside incidents,” Pierluigi Collina, chairman of Fifa’s referee committee, said in February. “Someone called it robot offside; it’s not.
– “The referees and the assistant referees are still responsible for the decision on the field of play.
– “The technology only gives them valued support to make more accurate and quicker decisions, particularly when the offside incident is very tight and very difficult.”
