ZURICH: Football’s law-making International Board is being recommended to make the five substitutions option permanent for competitions around the world.

The rule was amended on a temporary basis in May 2020, a month before football restarted after being paused because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Individual football leagues and competitions will be able to decide whether or not to implement the rules.

The decision follows a meeting of IFAB’S football and technical advisory panels.

An IFAB statement said: “FAP-TAP today recommended that competitions should be able to decide on increasing the number of substitutes according to the needs of their football environment, while the current number of substitution opportunities (three plus half-time) should stay the same.”

The law makers said it follows “a number of requests from confederations, associations, leagues and other key stakeholders for this option to be introduced permanently.”

A formal decision is down to the IFAB annual meeting early next year.

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