Football lawmakers are reportedly set to make a significant change for next season that would affect Everton and Liverpool.
Since the Premier League’s resumption last month, the International Football Association Board (IFAB) introduced the temporary change of allowing each team to make five substitutions per game, as opposed to the usual three.
This rule was brought in to help clubs and players manage fatigue and fitness levels with so many games in a short space of time.
Now, according to The Athletic, the IFAB are considering keeping the rule change in place for the entirety of next season.
The report claims that that the 2020/21 campaign could see players faced with similar fitness issues, due to playing a congested fixture list with only a limited “pre-season” period to return to fitness.
It is thought that the IFAB board of directors will announce the rule change in the coming days.
The majority of top flight clubs voted in favour of the rule change for this season, with only Aston Villa, Bournemouth, Sheffield United and West Ham voting against the proposal.
Liverpool have taken the opportunity of using five substitutions in all four of the matches so far since the restart.
For Everton, they have only made five changes in one game, which came in Monday’s defeat to Tottenham, but did make four in the win over Norwich.
Liverpool are back in action away to Brighton this evening.
And the Blues play again tomorrow night, at home to Southampton.
