FIFA Will Allow Temporary Substitutions in Cases of Concussion

After incidents such as that which involved Kelechi Iheanacho suffering a mild concussion after he was punched in the face by Manchester City goalkeeper Ederson, the Intentional Football Association Board has agreed, in conjunction, with FIFA to allow Coaches introduce temporary substitutes for the a concussed player.

The decision was among several communicated by IFAB at its 134th AGM held in Belfast Northern Ireland.

FIFA has suggested it would trial the new protocol at the Men and Women’s football event in the Summer Games which hold later this year in Tokyo.

The idea of a temporary substitute was reiterated by the Footballers Union, FIFPro, after the incident at the King Power Stadium involving Iheanacho.

He was allowed to continue for the rest of the first-half, but was later subbed off before t=he restart of the game in the second 45 minutes.

FIFPRO wants a temporary substitute to come on in such cases so doctors have at least 10 minutes to assess potentially concussed players. pic.twitter.com/xuBc57zXA9

— FIFPRO (@FIFPro) February 22, 2020

Another controversial issue the IFAB deliberated on was the Offside rule and how to simply it.

In its statement after the AGM, IFAB wrote:

The AGM agreed to consultation with all the relevant stakeholders, including The IFAB Technical Advisory Panel (TAP) and the Football Advisory Panel (FAP), to review the offside Law to foster the spirit of attacking play.

The IFAB will continue to look at measures within the Laws of the Game to tackle mobbing of match officials and confrontations between players which should have no place in the game.

Members were updated on the use of video assistant referees (VARs) around the world, highlighting the success of this innovation, while also considering future developments, including improving communication and potential technological advances.

The meeting also agreed on the importance of finding solutions to allow competitions with restricted budgets to be able to access and use VARs, with such solutions being led by the working group for innovation excellence that has been established by FIFA.

The AGM reviewed the changes to the 2019/20 Laws of the Game and noted their positive impact on the way the game is played and the image of the game. The AGM also approved clarifications to several existing Laws to the 2020/21 Laws of the Game. These changes relate to Law 10 (yellow cards are not carried forward into kicks from the penalty mark), Law 12 (handball, to differentiate more clearly between the arm and shoulder) and other clarifications.

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