The new rule will affect all competitions in progress and
those that will eventually resume in the coming months. Each federation will be
able to decide whether or not to apply this temporary change, which will be in
effect from June 1st to the end of December. IFAB and FIFA have
reserved the right to decide later whether to extend the change also for
competitions that must be completed in 2021.
To avoid too many interruptions in the game, however, each
team will only have three opportunities to make substitutions, in addition to
those that can be made during the interval between one game time and another.
The amendment was also introduced because given the contraction of the calendar
for the leagues that will restart the players will have to play more games in a
limited period.
IFAB was founded in London in 1886, but
is based in Zurich, and is independent of FIFA.
It is composed of only 8 members, each with equal voting rights: four are
appointed by FIFA and four are designated by the football associations of the
United Kingdom (federations of Scotland, Wales, England and Northern Ireland).