UEFA has brought in a new and very important change in the squad registration rules of their men’s club tournaments. Now the teams will be given the chance to replace a player if they are long-term injured or sick.
This newly introduced rule will apply to the Champions League, Europa League, and Conference League in which the number of players in the squad is limited to 25 and there are strict regulations regarding homegrown and club-trained players. According to the amendment, which was given the green light by UEFA’s Executive Committee, the teams will be allowed to change one outfield player with a temporary one before Matchday 6 of the league phase only.
UEFA stated, “The motive behind the modification is, first of all, that the squad lists should not be reduced in a way which is less than fair and, secondly, that changes in the workload of players should be avoided.”
Several European squad bumps have already occurred this season. Liverpool’s manager Arne Slot had only 24 players for the showdown against Napoli on Wednesday and the first-team star Chiesa was left out of the squad. The Chelsea squad list published on Thursday did not include Deadline Day signing Facundo Buonanotte. And Mathys Tel was among the three Tottenham players who were not considered in the club’s squad for Friday evening’s Europa League draw against Lazio.
The new regulation especially impacts Chelsea, Elise, who are we talking about, they’ve naturally got Levi Colwill on their squad list – he blew his ACL – can they just go and get a new player for him? Well, it remains to be seen whether the replacement can come out of the club-trained quota category, but at least the ruling gives clubs some wiggle room.
Even though the squad rules largely stay the same, this is quite a movement from the concerned side in reaction to the continuous occurance of fixture congestion and the overall welfare of the players.
