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Five substitutions were introduced in the Premier League in May 2020 before football resumed during the coronavirus pandemic.
The league moved back to three for the 2020-21 season, before voting for five permanently from the 2022-23 season. A sixth substitute is allowed to replace a player without a suspected head injury.
Three additional places in the team are seen as being able to reduce the workload on players after strike threats.
Tottenham defender Archie Gray was named in 80 squads for club and country last season, including friendlies, the highest in Europe with 20-year-old Real Madrid midfielder Arda Guler.
Gray, 19, made 48 appearances as Spurs won the Europa League and helped England Under-21s win Euro 2025 in the summer.
Sources close to the Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA) have doubts whether 28-man squads will help players, given it will not stop them traveling in the matchday squad or alleviate mental fatigue regardless of whether they play or not.
In June, UEFA, UEFA, FIFA and UEFA launched a study to better assess different types of injuries, performance levels and player wellbeing.
Last month, FifPro, the global players’ union, released its fifth annual report on the issue, looking at the number of players who played and traveled in 2024-25.
“Even if a player doesn’t play any minutes, he still has to be physically present and fully participate in the team’s preparations, and prepare mentally, while often spending time away from home and undertaking international travel,” she wrote.
“As such, these occasions are also part of the player’s working time commitments,” he added.
UEFA represents more than 800 men’s and women’s clubs from 55 countries, and among those attending last week were Paris Saint-Germain, Inter Milan and Barcelona.
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