The most popular sporting event is back. The four-year wait is over and the soccer community is going wild as Qatar 2022 has finally arrived. The FIFA World Cup is a highly anticipated tournament, not only for the diehard soccer fans but to people in general.
Only 32 nations have qualified for the prestigious competition, but the World Cup will be followed in every corner of the planet regardless. Unsurprisingly, as the moment has finally come, many questions have started to arise.
While Qatar 2022 will be the last World Cup to feature 32 teams— the tournament will expand to 48 nations in 2026— this edition will also bring a number of changes. For instance, the number of substitutes and substitutions will be different fromRussia 2018.
How many substitutes by team will there be at the FIFA World CupQatar 2022?
One of the biggest changes for this World Cup was the expansion of allowable spots in the rosters, letting all 32 teams to select up to 26 players instead of 23, which was the maximum until Russia 2018.
Consequently, teams areallowed to have up to 15 substitutes rather than 12, as long as all those players were previously included in the squad. France, for instance, opted not to use all26 spots.
How many substitutions can be made at the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022?
Perhaps the major change in this World Cup is that teams are allowed to makefive substitutions during a game, when in previous editions the maximum number of changes they could make was three.
Nowadays it’s normal to see competitions allowing up to five substitutions instead of three, mainly because of the pandemic’s impact. The consequences of Covid-19 on the players’ healthprompted FIFA to increase the number of substitutions a couple of years back, and this modification still persists in most competitions. Now it will be implemented in the World Cup.
It’s important to keep in mind, though, that managerswill only have three windows to make the substitutions. That means, they cannot stop the game five times. Otherwise, a lot of time could be wasted. However, the halftime breaks don’t count as another window.
Qatar 2022: Does a sub for a head injury count as one of the five substitutions?
We have to note, though, that making a substitution due to a head injury doesn’t count as one of the five allowable substitutions. Therefore, teams can make more than the five allowable subs as long as they’re due to head injuries.
Qatar 2022: How many substitutions are allowed in extra time?
Besides having up to five allowable substitutions and three windows to make them during the regular time, teams can also make an extra substitution if the game goes to extra time.
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