Substitution rules explained: five substitutes, three windows and concussion replacements

In a top-level competition a team may use up to five substitutes, but only in three stoppages during play, with half-time not counted, and a concussion substitute can come on top of the five where the competition allows it. The exact numbers are the competition's choice within limits the laws set, so the Premier League allows up to nine named substitutes and the Champions League twelve. This is how Law 3 of the IFAB's Laws of the Game 2026/27 sets it out, with the Premier League's rules and the UEFA Champions League regulations for this season beside it.

How many substitutes can a team use?

Law 3 lets FIFA, the confederation or the national association decide how many substitutes may be used in an official competition, up to a maximum of five. The same law makes each competition state how many may be named, from three to fifteen.

The five began as a temporary measure. FIFA asked for it in May 2020 to protect players' welfare during the pandemic, and at its annual general meeting in Doha in June 2022 the IFAB made the option permanent from the 2022/23 laws, raising the most substitutes a team sheet may name from 12 to 15 at the same time.

Each competition then fills in the numbers:

	Named	Used	Windows during play
Premier League	up to 9	5	3, plus half-time
Champions League	12	5	3, plus half-time
Senior international friendlies	up to 15	8, or up to 11 by agreement	3, plus half-time
Other matches	—	by agreement, otherwise up to 6	—

In the Premier League, Rule L.29 of the 2026/27 handbook allows up to nine substitutes on the team sheet, of whom no more than five may play. In the Champions League, Article 55 has each club list 23 players on the match sheet, eleven of them starters, and Article 56 lets up to five of the substitutes take part.

What counts as a substitution window?

Where five substitutes are allowed in the top division or in senior internationals, Law 3 gives each team a maximum of three substitution opportunities, and substitutions at half-time come on top of them. Several substitutions by one team during the same stoppage count as one opportunity, and when both teams change players at the same stoppage, it counts as one for each.

So a coach who wants all five changes has to group them. Making two at one stoppage, two at another and one at a third uses all three windows; a single change at each of three stoppages leaves two substitutes unused, unless they come on at half-time.

What happens in extra time?

A team that has not used all its substitutes or opportunities may use what is left in extra time. A competition may also allow one additional substitute, and with it one additional opportunity. Substitutions made between full time and the start of extra time, and at half-time in extra time, do not count as opportunities at all.

The Champions League takes up that option. Under Article 56, a sixth substitute listed on the match sheet may play in a knockout match, exclusively during extra time, and each team may use one additional stoppage in extra time. The Premier League has no extra time, so the question never arises there.

How does a concussion substitute work?

Following approval at the IFAB's annual general meeting on 2 March 2024, the laws allow competitions to use additional permanent concussion substitutions. The word that matters is permanent: a player removed with an actual or suspected concussion takes no further part in the match, including a penalty shoot-out.

The IFAB protocol allows each team one concussion substitute per match, whatever number of substitutes it has already used, and the change does not count against the normal substitution opportunities. It can be made straight away, after an assessment on or off the pitch, or later, if a player who was assessed and went back on shows signs. The referee does not decide whether an injury qualifies; that is the team's call, and the match officials report any concern that the rule was misused.

The other team then gets the option of an additional substitute, for any reason, with an additional opportunity that can only be used for that player. Two limits stop the rule becoming a loophole: a normal substitution made at the same time as a concussion one counts as one of the normal opportunities, and a team that has used all its normal opportunities cannot use a concussion substitution to make a normal one.

The Premier League applies the protocol under Rule L.30, which allows one concussion substitute and/or one additional substitute on top of the five, from the players already named on the team sheet. Its guidance handbook for 2026/27 says the team tells the fourth official with a green substitution card.

What does that look like in a match?

Leeds beat Newcastle 4–1 at Elland Road on 14 September, and the substitutions show the whole rule at work. AFP reported that Newcastle's Nico González had to be replaced as a concussion substitute, and our record has him going off on 19 minutes. That gave Leeds an additional substitute: they made three changes on 72 minutes, one on 78, one on 83 and a sixth on 88, when A. Stach came off. That is four stoppages, the three normal ones and the additional one, and six players on.

How does the substitution itself work?

The substitutes' names must be given to the referee before kick-off, and nobody left off the list may play. The referee must be told before a substitution is made. The player going off needs the referee's permission and leaves by the nearest point on the boundary line, unless the referee lets them leave at the halfway line or elsewhere, for example for safety or an injury. The substitute comes on only during a stoppage, at the halfway line, after the other player has gone off and after a signal from the referee.

The substitution is complete when the substitute enters the field. From that moment they are a player and may take any restart, which is why a substitute brought on after a penalty is awarded may take it, as an IFAB example in Law 3 confirms.

What is the ten-second rule?

New in the 2026/27 laws, the player being substituted must be off the field within ten seconds of the substitution board going up, or of the referee's signal where there is no board. When a team makes several changes at one stoppage, all of its outgoing players must be off within ten seconds of the last one being shown. The referee may count down the last five seconds with a raised hand.

If the player takes longer, they must still leave, but the substitute may not come on yet. Play restarts a player short, the substitution cannot be cancelled or swapped for another substitute, and the substitute may enter only with the referee's permission at the first stoppage after one minute has elapsed following the restart. The outgoing player is cautioned only for excessive delay. The referee need not apply the limit when an injury or safety prevents it, and the Premier League's Competition Guidance Handbook lists under-18 players as a further exception, as determined by the referee: an under-18 player being substituted may go directly to the halfway line.

Can a substituted player come back on?

Not in senior professional football. Return substitutions, in which a player who has gone off comes back on, are allowed only in youth, veterans, disability and grassroots football, if the national association, confederation or FIFA agrees.

Can a player who is sent off be replaced?

Only before kick-off. A player sent off after being named on the team list but before kick-off may be replaced by one of the named substitutes, and the team keeps its full number of substitutions, but that substitute cannot then be replaced. A player sent off after kick-off cannot be replaced, nor can a named substitute who is sent off at any time.

Can a team change its goalkeeper?

Any player may change places with the goalkeeper, as long as the referee is told first and the change is made during a stoppage. If they swap without permission, play goes on and both are cautioned when the ball is next out of play, unless the swap was made at half-time or before extra time or penalties.

In numbers

Across the first seven Premier League matchdays, 70 matches, teams made 618 substitutions, 4.41 a team a match. In 83 of the 140 team performances a side used all five; six times a team used only two. Twice a team made six, which in the Premier League is possible only with a concussion or an additional substitute: Leeds against Newcastle, and Hull City at Chelsea on 12 September. Substitutes scored 27 of the 203 goals.

The Premier League's matches and line-ups are on the Premier League page, and Europe's on the Champions League page.

Sources: IFAB Laws of the Game 2026/27, Law 3, IFAB additional permanent concussion substitutions protocol, IFAB time-limited substitution protocol, IFAB law changes 2026/27, IFAB on the permanent five-substitute option, June 2022, UEFA Champions League regulations 2026/27, Article 55, Article 56, Premier League Handbook 2026/27, Premier League and Pro Ref Competition Guidance Handbook 2026/27, AFP on Leeds v Newcastle, via Kuwait Times.