4th Substitute in football

[Pablo Escobar]

Long story short, initially there were no subs in major football competitions, so if a player got injured, team was down to 10.

in 1953 FIFA World Cup Qualifying the first ever sub was a German during a match against Saarland and subs were allowed in the Football League in England in the 60's only if players were injured, while the first sub at a FIFA World Cup happened in 1970 in Mexico for the Soviet team.

At the Euro 1988 two were allowed with a maximum of 5 player sitting on the bench. At the 1994 World Cup there was a 3rd sub rule but only if the goalkeeper was injured and finally since 1995, 3 subs were permitted.

At the Copa America Centenario there was no extra time except for the final, in which the teams were allowed a 4th in case of ET which happened in New York.

Now FIFA are thinking of making it official, experimental at first, maybe limited to goalies or ET.

Technically, 3 subs in 90 minutes means one for each half hour, so the extra 30 minutes make a 4th eligible, so why not?

 

[Deco 20]

I'm all for a fourth sub in extra time

 

[Barcaman]

No thanx.

 

[Yannik]

Tuchel brought up a quite interesting suggestion just a week ago.
Tuchel wants 6 subs instead of 3 meaning that instead of subbing out 1 per time, teams sub 2. He listed a couple advantages:

- less fatigue and injuries
- higher paced games
- more team spirit because more players are used"
- more chances for squad- and youth players
- more tacticsl flexibility

I like the idea, but the big problem I see with this is the fact that this will lead to big clubs hoarding even more players to widen their squads. 4 subs would be cool though, 3 seems a bit to less in football.

 

[Alik]

I don't see what's wrong with the current system.

Tuchel brought up a quite interesting suggestion just a week ago.
The big problem I see with this is the fact that this will lead to big clubs hoarding even more players to widen their squads.

Agreed.

 

[Morten]

Personally i feel there should be one additional sub allowed for extra time(which is basically just for tournaments and cups).

 

[Neymessi]

For 90 min one has to carefully take into account a lot of factors before making a choice but extra time should definitely have 4 subs.

 

[Total-Football]

a lot of rules need to be revisited .. 4 th in extra time needs to be introduced asap

also they need to unify the size of the pitch .. the range allowed in the fifa rule book is fucking ridiculous .. anfield is like 6 meters smaller than camp nou ( length ) .. other sports have precise standards the most popular sport in the world should too .. and it should be set at the maximum surface because the game is getting more physical .

 

[Total-Football]

Tuchel brought up a quite interesting suggestion just a week ago.
Tuchel wants 6 subs instead of 3 meaning that instead of subbing out 1 per time, teams sub 2. He listed a couple advantages:

- less fatigue and injuries
- higher paced games
- more team spirit because more players are used"
- more chances for squad- and youth players
- more tacticsl flexibility

I like the idea, but the big problem I see with this is the fact that this will lead to big clubs hoarding even more players to widen their squads. 4 subs would be cool though, 3 seems a bit to less in football.

one of the many reasons football is the most popular sport in the world is the fluidity of the game .. 6 subs mean eventually 12 stoppages of the game .. that alone ruins the beauty of the game a great deal .. if fatigue is an issue i would rather cut some minutes of the playtime than do this

edit : of course the part about subbing 2 ( obligatory ) is absurd lol .. changing another player i dont wanna change just because i want to insert a new player lol

 

[Yannik]

one of the many reasons football is the most popular sport in the world is the fluidity of the game .. 6 subs mean eventually 12 stoppages of the game .. that alone ruins the beauty of the game a great deal .. if fatigue is an issue i would rather cut some minutes of the playtime than do this

edit : of course the part about subbing 2 ( obligatory ) is absurd lol .. changing another player i dont wanna change just because i want to insert a new player lol

The idea is that you dont HAVE to sub 2 players at once. You can either change 1 or 2 at the same time, if you sub in 2 then the subs happen at the same time so game fluidity doesnt suffer. You cant sub 6 times, just 3 times a 1-2 respectively.

 

[barcanuck]

Good poll!

6 subs is ridiculous!

4 subs needs to be done ASAP + 1 ET sub.

My reasoning. Clubs play the most games now compared to 20 years ago. Big clubs play close to 70 games with friendlies, league, cup(s) and european competitions. Then you have qualifiers and friendlies on the international stage for the bigger players it can be taxing. Extra subs would allow more rest from this crazy world of non stop footy.

 

[snowy]

one of the many reasons football is the most popular sport in the world is the fluidity of the game ..

This. With 4 subs, there will invariably be time wasting by players slowly walking off the pitch, pausing every 10 meters to reflect on the mysteries of black holes or just to pick up a grasshopper, taking a bow and applauding the crowd. 8 subs in total will cause way too many interruptions unless they totally revamped the rules and allowed for rapid fire Hockey style subs. Uhm...not seeing this anytime soon.
Or they could allow 4 [or more] subs but only under the provision that the players being subbed immediately exit the pitch at the nearest side (if that makes any sense...). This way, no more long promenades and a faster paced games with less fatigue induced injuries.

Also, 2 "Hawk Eye" instant replay challenge per team per match could kick things up a notch. This would add interesting strategical and suspense elements to the game as managers would have to pick their challenges wisely (ie. penalty, off-sides, dives, dangerous tackles a la Zunida etc.). It wouldn't really slow down the game since players usually take care of that themselves by flanking the ref and pleading their cases like Joe Pesci in a courtroom.

 

[Horatio]

The fourth one can only come on during extended time. Then it's okay.


EDIT: owh....I see I already participated in the poll a long time ago.

 

[evilhita666]

I voted 3 + 1 when there is extra time... However, the first three should be done on regulation and can't be "saved" for extra time...

I also think that if the three subs have been used and the GK gets injured, a free GK sub should take place...