NOTES AND MODIFICATIONS

Guidelines for Return Substitutes

Following approval at the 131st AGM of The IFAB held in London on 3rd March 2017 the Laws of the Game now permit the use of return substitutes in youth, veterans, disability and grassroots football, subject to the approval of the competition’s national FA, confederation or FIFA, whichever is appropriate.

Reference to return substitutions is found in:

Law 3. The Players > 3.2 Number of substitutions – Return substitutions

  • The use of return substitutions is only permitted in youth, veterans, disability and grassroots football, subject to the agreement of the national football association, confederation or FIFA.

A ‘return substitute’ is a player who has already played in the match and has been substituted (a substituted player) and later in the match returns to play by replacing another player.

Apart from the dispensation for a substituted player to return to play in the match, all other provisions of Law 3 and the Laws of the Game apply to return substitutes. In particular, the substitution procedure outlined in Law 3 must be followed.