UEFA Annual Meetings: Five Substitutions Approved For Club, Country Football

UEFA Annual Meeting which was held on Thursday 24 September announced the approval of five substitutions for both club and country football as the next season begins.

UEFA Executive Committee made the decision on Thursday after an agreement with the European Club Association and the European Leagues.

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The body concluded on the new agreement to recover the dates lost due to the cancellation of the March 2020 window and the postponement of EURO 2020 to the summer of 2021.

? All the important news from today's #UEFAExCo meeting in one place: ?

— UEFA (@UEFA) September 24, 2020

 So that three matches instead of two could be accommodated, the UEFA committee extended the March and September 2021 windows in the FIFA international match calendar.

The calendar for European national team matches will therefore now be as follows - pending FIFA's approval:

22–31 March 2021: 3 dates

31 May–8 June 2021: EURO preparation friendly matches

30 August–8 September 2021: 3 dates

4–12 October 2021: 2 dates

8–16 November 2021: 2 dates

21–29 March 2022: 2 dates for European Qualifiers play-offs

This solution has already been implemented, with FIFA’s approval, for the international windows of October and November 2020.

The UEFA Executive Committee also decided to allow up to five substitutions for all the matches played in the UEFA Nations League, the European Qualifiers play-offs, the UEFA Women’s EURO Qualifiers, the UEFA Champions League, and the UEFA Europa League as from the group stage, and the UEFA Women’s Champions League, for the remainder of the season.

This decision was made in order to alleviate the burden on players caused by the condensed 2020/21 international match calendar due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Consequently, the number of players permitted on the match sheet will be increased to 23.