FIFA announce five substitute rule to stay until 2021 in response to COVID-19 pandemic

FIFA on Wednesday announced that the new five substitute rule will remain in place until the end of the 2020-21 season.

"Following the decision taken on 8 May 2020 to give competitions scheduled to be completed in 2020 the option of allowing teams to use up to five substitutes, The IFAB Board of Directors had agreed to review whether to extend this option further," FIFA said in a statement.

"On the basis of this in-depth review, which included stakeholder feedback and an analysis of the impact of COVID-19 on competition calendars, the IFAB Board of Directors has extended the option to competitions scheduled to be completed by July 31, 2021 and to international competitions scheduled in July/August 2021," it added.

On May 8, IFAB has agreed to introduce a temporary amendment, allowing for a maximum of five substitutes to be made per team.

The temporary change in the rules was brought in to protect players' fitness when competitions come back after football across the world was put on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

"The decision on whether to apply this temporary amendment will remain at the discretion of each individual competition orgser, while The IFAB and FIFA will determine at a later stage whether this temporary amendment would need to be extended further," the FIFA had said in a statement.

( With inputs from ANI )