The Premier League has agreed to permit permanent concussion substitutes from next month after football’s lawmakers authorized extensive trials using them.
However, in a meeting on Thursday club bosses in England’s top flight voted for a third time against increasing the number of allowed substitutes from three to five despite the International Football Association Board (IFAB), also extending that rule on Wednesday.
IFAB said the trials using concussion substitutes could begin in January, and the Premier League bosses decided they would be looking at a maximum of two per side per match.Concussion has become an increasingly hot issue in the sport rugby union has used head injury replacements for a while with increasing concern over the amount of former footballers who develop dementia later in life.
Although Premier League clubs once again repudiated moves to allow five substitutes they did agree to allow nine players on the bench as opposed to the present seven. The measure will come into effect from this weekend’s round of games beginning on Saturday.