Following the footsteps of FIFA, the Royal Spanish Football Federation on Thursday proposed the possibility of allowing teams to make five substitutions in post-COVID-19 matches in the country.

Earlier, FIFA had come up with the same idea to help the teams in coping with likely fixture congestion in what will be a packed schedule after football returns. The new temporary rule is expected to be validated by the International Football Association Board (IAFB) on Friday.

The main objective of the new rule, according to FIFA, is to “protect players’ health” as it is expected to be a tight schedule with players not getting enough time to rest which could potentially “increase risk of injuries” after the sport resumes.

“The Royal Spanish Football Federation will take the Delegate Commission tomorrow the expansion to five changes per team in matches of all national categories in an extraordinary way. These changes can be made in three moments of the match, with the aim of protecting the health of the players, after the limitations that the period of confinement has meant for their training,” the Spanish Federation said in a statement.

FIFA had maintained that the implementation of the rule would be at the discretion of the organisers of each competition. Other than La Liga, no other league or competition has expressed its desire to use the rule.

While the new rule will be in play for the remaining part of the ongoing season, it could be maintained throughout the 2020-21 season as well with further extension till the UEFA Euro which is scheduled to take place in summer next year, FIFA said.

Meanwhile, Spanish top-flight La Liga is likely to return on June 20 and could be concluded by July 26, revealed Leganes coach Javier Aguirre. “We already have a start date for the league,” Aguirre told Marca Claro MVS, adding, “On June 20, we will start La Liga and in five weeks we will be officially finished, on July 26.”

Notably, the La Liga, like all major sporting events across the globe, has been suspended since March in the wake of the novel Coronavirus which has so far killed 26,000 and affected 2.5 lakh in Spain.