Premier League clubs agree to use of five substitutes from next season

Premier League clubs have voted in favour of allowing five substitutions per team from next season. Managers including Liverpool’s Jürgen Klopp have been strongly in favour of the move but three times in the past two years the idea was rejected.

“From next season, clubs will be permitted to use five substitutions, to be made on three occasions during a match, with an additional opportunity at half-time,” the league said in a statement. “A total of nine substitutes can be named on the team sheet.”

At least 14 of the 20 clubs needed to vote in favour of the proposal and the decision moves England’s top flight in line with the Europe’s other major leagues.

The Premier League also said the summer transfer window would open on 10 June and close at 11pm on 1 September and that its Covid measures had been updated. “From 4 April, the league will remove twice-weekly Covid-19 testing of players and staff and move to symptomatic testing only,” it said.

The league said on Monday that in its most recent round of tests, between 21 and 27 March, 1,388players and staff had been tested for Covid and that there had been 22 new positive results.