Current Football Substitution Rules: How Many Subs Can Be Made?

Substition rules in football have well evolved in recent times. This is due to the overall progression of player health and wellbeing.

For decades, teams were only allowed to make three substitutions per match.

With a move from three to five substitutions in professional football, there has been a marked emphasis on player health, safety, and strategic gameplay.

SportsBoom investigates football substitution rules to see how many subs can be made.

We also look at the changes in the football substitution rules over the past 161 years. 

How many football substitutions can be made?

Since 2020, five substitutes can be made in football. However, this number used to be three, and if we go back a few decades more, there used to be none allowed.  

The first use of a substitute in international football was on 15 April 1889, in the match between Wales and Scotland at Wrexham, when the original Welsh goalkeeper, Jim Trainer, failed to arrive.

With the goalkeeper being one of the most important positions in football, the substitution rules began to evolve.

In English football, substitutions were officially added to the Laws of the Game in 1958.

From 1863, when association football was codified, to 1958, the sport was played with no changes permitted, with occasional exceptions in cases of extreme injury or players not arriving to matches on time.

While the laws of football have changed a lot over the years, substitutions were capped at three per team.

Substitutes in World Cup Finals matches were not allowed until the 1970 tournament in Mexico.

By 1988, the substitution rule had been extended further: managers could name a squad of 16 players for each game, with two of those five substitutes allowed to enter the pitch.

When were the most recent changes to the substitution rules in football?

In 2020, during the Coronavirus pandemic, the world’s football associations reviewed the substitution laws. FIFA increased the number of subs and allowed up to five substitutes per game.

Fixture congestion, caused by chaos in the schedule, meant that teams were regularly playing three games per week.

FIFA motioned to the International Football Association Board (IFAB), which ratified football's rules that five substitutes be allowed, but only during COVID-19. The IFAB agreed.

However, the five-substitute rule in football has now been made permanent.

Current Football Substitution Rules

In a standard 90-minute professional football match, a team can make a maximum of five substitutions, but only on three separate occasions and an added opportunity at halftime.

There are currently nine players named on the bench.

These changes aim to give players a better chance of recovery and ensure a high-level of play during the match because of fixture congestion and better player welfare.

If a player is sent off, they cannot be replaced.

Does Football Allow for Concussion Substitutes?

The increasing awareness around player safety, particularly concerns about head injuries, has seen concussion substitutions introduced to football.

However, a concussion substitution does not count towards the number of substitutions allowed in a match.

When the number of named substitutes matches the maximum number of substitutions allowed, the concussion substitute could even be a player previously substituted out of the match.

There were hopes that temporary concussion substitutes would allow a player to be examined off the pitch and replaced by a colleague for a specific timeframe, like in rugby union.

However, proposals for a trial in the English Premier League have so far been rejected.