Premier League leads call for temporary concussion substitutions

Those who favor temporary substitutes suggest they would significantly improve the immediate management of concussion injuries and ensure medical teams have adequate time to evaluate players.

The Premier League is prepared to meet with the International Football Association Board (IFAB) to discuss this issue and will also share data, knowledge and learning with both the IFAB and FIFA.

It is hoped that the FIFA Council will present the idea to its annual general meeting in Cardiff on February 28, where the trials are likely to receive final approval.

Although IFAB insists that permanent substitutions are the safest method, many leagues and federations have been consistently against it.

Fifpro and the PFA first raised their opposition to the Ifab trials when they began in 2021.

In 2022, the ATP insisted on this, external The temporary replacements will allow “medical staff to carry out more detailed and lengthy examinations of a potentially injured player away from the field of play”.

A joint application by a group of leagues was rejected at the annual general meeting of the International Football Association Board (IFAB) in March 2023. The Premier League said it was “disappointed” and “all available scientific evidence” was being ignored.

After months of this rejection, the International Federation of Association Football (FIFPro) confirmed its position, external On temporary replacements, citing evidence from the British Journal of Sports Medicine that assessing concussions in athletes should take at least 10-15 minutes.

The Premier League’s letter to Ifab includes recent research showing that between 27% and 53% of players diagnosed with concussion are not replaced immediately.

In other sports, the use of temporary substitutes has led to a significant decrease in the number of players returning to play who are subsequently diagnosed with concussions.

In rugby union the number dropped from 58% to 8%, while in the NFL less than 2% of players returned to the field.

The Premier League will tell the UEFA Council that there is no logical reason to ignore temporary replacement trials and, in the event of refusal, detailed justifications must be provided.

A regulatory framework has been developed to ensure that substitutions are not abused by teams to gain a competitive advantage.

The opposition team will be given an extra substitution, while video footage of all incidents will be reviewed by a supervisory group to determine whether they are legitimate.

FIFA President Gianni Infantino said earlier that the decision to refuse to try temporary substitutes was taken to prioritize the health of the players and ensure “zero risks” in such scenarios.