The Qatar FIFA World Cup will see five substitutes and bigger teams. Football’s rule-making body, the International Football Association Board, has made changes to the rules only five months before the World Cup. Now teams will be able to exercise the additional options in the match. Earlier the coach could use up to three substitutes in a match. Now for the first time, he will be able to make five changes per match.
In view of the physical and mental health of the players in 2020 due to COVID-19, the number of substitutes was already temporarily increased from 3 to 5, but now it has been made permanent. This will also be applicable in domestic leagues and Champions League around the world.
Changes in rules were made due to COVID-19
FIFA also announced the expansion of the roster (team) for the tournament. Now the team can have a maximum of 26 players instead of 23. This is the third consecutive World Cup, before which the rules have been changed. Goal-line technology was introduced at the 2014 Brazil World Cup. At the same time, the video-assistant review started at the 2018 Russia World Cup.
Teams welcomed this change
Thomas Tuchel, coach of English club Chelsea, described this change as wonderful. It is very hot in Qatar from June-July, so this time the World Cup will be held in the winter months i.e. November-December. This means that the World Cup will be held in the middle of the club football season. This will put additional pressure on the players as players play for the teams of their respective countries apart from the club teams.
Anyway, many matches could not be held in 2020 due to COVID. When the matches started again, the players had to play the matches quickly to finish the season. Since then his schedule has been running nonstop. These changes will benefit that if a player in the team is infected with corona, then the coach will have an additional option. The coach will be able to manage the workload of the players.
Since the club football season will start from July-August. Even before the World Cup, players have to play practice matches. This will increase their number of matches. By increasing the roster and substitutes, the coach will also be able to relax the players by taking them into the rotation and keeping them fresh by avoiding fatigue.