Report: How and Why the Five Substitute Rule is a Game Changer for Football

What’s in the Report?

This report explores the impact of a recent substitution rule change made by English Premier League clubs. Teams have voted in favour of increasing the number of permissible substitutions. Now for the 2022/2023 season, teams will be able to make five substitutes instead of the traditional three during each match.

The principal driver behind this decision is to mitigate the effects of increased match intensity and fixture congestion, factors which are believed to directly impact player health and welfare.

This report explores:

• How the rule change could impact players, clubs, and other leagues & competitions
• Why EPL players are 4x more likely to sustain an in-game hamstring injury in December & January than at any other time of the season
• How much injuries really cost a team, including average player wages lost in a season
• How athlete monitoring technology can help to mitigate costly injuries
• Why real-time pitch-side analysis is the future of football performance