The new FIFA rule will make things even harder for Celtic if they manage to make it to the UEFA Champions League.
Next season is expected to be like no other. The global pandemic has changed society for the foreseeable future and football will not remain untouched either. It will be quite some time before fans will be allowed back into Celtic Park or any other stadium for that matter.
The shutdown of football has also taken out a chunk of time out from the previous season and as a result leagues around Europe have been left scrambling to finish the games that were postponed as a result of the lockdown before they can get on with next season. Thus, the upcoming season will have to be played out within a shorter span of time than normal.
As a result, FIFA have been left changing up a number of rules in order to make things easier on the players. We have already seen the water breaks in the middle of every half as well as five substitutions every game, in order to avoid injuries as much as possible. And now it appears that the five substitutions rule will be in place for the entirety of next season.
As reported by the BBC, FIFA have announced that five-substitution rule can be in place until August of 2021 so effectively for the entirety of next season. Now while this will help Celtic in domestic competitions as they have a much deeper squad than most other Scottish clubs, it will be cause for concern when they come against the top guns in Europe who have hundreds of millions worth of talent warming the benches.
Of course, for that to happen the club will have to make the Champions League in the first place, which they have failed to do so for the past two seasons. But they showed some promising signs in the Europa League last season and hopefully will make it back to Europe’s premier competition next season.