Concussion substitutions to be trialled in January 2021

Football’s lawmaking body IFAB announced one of the revolutionary ideas to protect the players. Yesterday, IFAB announced that the concussion substitutions will be trialled from January.

After “less than a year of detailed consultation with relevant stakeholders, medical concussion experts, team doctors, player representatives, coaches, competition organizers, refereeing and Laws of the Game experts” IFAB finally decided to introduce to protect the players. IFAB hopes that it will decrease the risk of players sustaining multiple head injuries in a single match but also ensure teams are not facing any disadvantage when a player be told to leave the pitch.

The head injury concerns have increased after there were multiple issues that happened in the last few weeks in Europe’s Elite leagues. Recently in the Premier League, Arsenal defender David Luiz continued to play with a fractured skull until half-time after a clash of heads with Wolverhampton Wanderers striker Jose Maria Gimenez.

FA has already confirmed to introduce the rule from January in FA Cup, the Women’s Super League, Women’s FA Cup, and Women’s Championship.

The Premier League said, “With player welfare the Premier League’s priority, clubs agreed in principle to introduce additional permanent concussion substitutions following approval of the trial by the International Football Association Board yesterday.”

“The Premier League will look to implement protocols which will allow a maximum of two concussion substitutes to be used per team, with the opposition side able to use the equivalent number.”

“The additional concussion substitutions may be made regardless of the number of substitutions a team has made already.”

The rule will be implemented now until December 31, 2021, with the extension applying to international competitions until July 31, 2022.