Soccer-Italian federation agrees to allow five substitutions

Serie A is set to allow five substitutions per team when it resumes on June 20 following the novel coronavirus stoppage after the temporary rule change was approved by the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) on Friday. The FIGC said in a statement that its decision-making council had agreed "to allow a maximum number of five substitutions to be made for each team in the scheduled competitions up to the end of the 2019/2020 season."

The change was approved by soccer's rule-making body IFAB in May to help teams battling possible fixture congestion as they try and complete the season in a short period of time. However, it is up to individual federations and leagues to decide if they want to adopt it.

Serie A was suspended on March 9 and the teams will have to play 12 rounds of matches in a hectic six-week period ending on Aug 2. (Writing by Brian Homewood; Editing by Ken Ferris)