MANAGERS want new rules to allow up to five substitutes if the season restarts.
An increasing number of coaches from the Premier League down to League Two are worried about mass injuries due to the number of games to be crammed inside two months.
Managers want to be able to make five substitutions rather than just three to prevent injuries mounting upCredit: Reuters
Many feel teams will not complete matches with 11 players on the pitch unless leagues increase the current three-substitution allowance.
One manager said: “A few of us feel the same but you cannot fit an entire pre-season into a couple of weeks.
“There will be lots of injuries and it will cause mayhem. There will be no room for tactical substitutions.
“They will just be used for the injuries. We need to ask them to have a look at substitutions.”
It could be extremely difficult, though, for clubs to persuade football bosses to alter the rules despite these extraordinary circumstances.
If a restart gets the go-ahead, particularly in the Premier League, there will be a mini pre-season of a couple of weeks but that will come after the stars have been relatively inactive, regardless of home workouts.
Most pro teams are already devising schedules of behind-closed-doors friendlies at training grounds. But only two or three games are likely to be possible.
Global players union FIFPro claim safeguards must be put in place to manage player workload in what will inevitably be a condensed 2020/21 season.
FIFPro general secretary Jonas Baer-Hoffmann said: “We very much believe that as soon as we have an understanding of when football can start again — and how we can finish the season — we need some very strong safeguards so that players do still find their rest.
“We are going to have a very tight schedule anyway with the winter 2022 World Cup.
“It’s now high time that we say as stakeholders, ‘OK, let’s get out of this crisis as well as we can but also put safeguards in to manage player loads moving forward.’
“I think that would be a strong expectation from our side.”
Vincent Kompany, who sits on FIFPro’s player council, previously called for a cap on the number of matches a player can be involved in.
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Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
