ZURICH: The Laws of the Game 2020-21, approved at the 134th Annual General Meeting of the International Football Association Board, on February 29, have come into force from June 1.

The downloadable versions of the full Laws of the Game book, the summary and details of all Law changes as well as other supporting material are available here. The web version can be viewed in the ‘Laws of the Game’ section on our website: theifab.com.

Using the 2020/21 Laws

The Laws of the Game 2020/21 are compulsory for friendly matches and competitions which start on or after 1 June 2020. However, competitions which started before 1 June 2020 (including on-going multi-year competitions, qualification matches and final tournaments) may implement the Laws earlier or delay their use until no later than the start of the next competition.

Coronavirus (COVID-19) and the Laws of the Game

Competitions which have been suspended or delayed because of COVID-19 have the option of completing the competition using the Laws of the Game 2019/20 or adopting the Laws of the Game 2020/21. ‘Friendly/practice/warm-up’ matches in preparation for the restart of the competition are permitted to use the version of the Laws that will be used when the competition restarts, even if these matches are after 1 June 2020.

Temporary amendment to Law 3 – The Players

On 8 May 2020 a temporary amendment to Law 3 was introduced which allows top competitions to give their teams the option to use a maximum of five substitutes with each team having three opportunities to make substitutions, in addition to any substitutions made at half-time. More details can be found here.

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