Football Substitution Rules: Your Questions Answered on Limits, Windows, Extra Time and the 2026/27 Ten-Second Exit Rule

Football's Laws of the Game let competitions allow up to five substitutes per team, but each competition sets the actual number, the size of the bench and the permitted substitution windows. This guide works through Law 3 of the 2026/27 edition, while RubiScore shows each change on its match pages as events happen.

Every answer below separates two layers: what Law 3 fixes for all football, and what a competition's own rules decide. Lineups and substitution events for live matches are listed at https://rubiscore.com, but only the rulebook says whether a change was allowed.

How Many Substitutes Are Allowed in a Football Match?

In an official competition, Law 3.2 caps the number at five per team. FIFA, the confederation or the national association decides how many of those five a competition uses, and it may allow fewer.

In non-official matches other than senior international friendlies, teams may agree a higher number if the referee is told before kick-off. Without that, each team may use a maximum of six.

Why Does the Number Depend on the Competition?

Law 3.2 is a ceiling and a framework. The International Football Association Board (IFAB) writes the Laws, and each competition's regulations fill in the details. Three examples show the spread:

• UEFA Champions League (2026/27 regulations): Article 56 allows up to five listed substitutes to play, plus a sixth in knockout matches during extra time only. A match sheet carries 23 players: the starting 11 and 12 substitutes.
• Premier League: clubs agreed on 31 March 2022 to use five substitutions on three occasions plus half-time, with nine substitutes named, from the following season. Check the current Handbook for the wording in force.
• Senior international friendlies (2026/27 Laws): up to fifteen named and eight used, up from six, or eleven if both teams agree and tell the referee beforehand.

For lower divisions, cups and youth football, the competition rulebook is the only reliable source.

When Did Five Substitutions Become Permanent?

The option began as a pandemic measure. In May 2020, at FIFA's request to protect player welfare, IFAB let top competitions use up to five substitutes, and extended that temporary amendment several times.

On 13 June 2022, at its annual general meeting in Doha, IFAB made the option permanent in the Laws of the Game 2022/23, effective 1 July 2022. It confirmed the limit of three substitution slots plus half-time and raised the maximum named substitutes from 12 to 15, at the organiser's discretion.

What Is a Substitution Window?

The Laws call it a substitution opportunity: one stoppage in play at which a team makes one or more changes. Where competition rules allow five substitutes in top-division first-team competitions and senior international football, each team gets a maximum of three opportunities, plus half-time.

Three counting rules apply:

• Several substitutions at the same stoppage count as one opportunity.
• If both teams substitute together, it counts as a used opportunity for both.
• Changes at half-time do not use an opportunity.

The Champions League expresses this as a maximum of three stoppages in play, with one more in extra time. Outside that scope, check the competition rules before assuming three.

What Changes in Extra Time?

Unused substitutes and opportunities carry into extra time. A competition may also allow one additional substitute, with one additional opportunity, and its rules must say so. In UEFA's Champions League it does, for knockout matches only.

Changes between full time and extra time, or at half-time in extra time, do not use an opportunity.

One catch comes from IFAB's published questions: a request before the final whistle is not enough. If no stoppage occurs before extra time ends, the change cannot be made before a shoot-out, and only players on the field, or temporarily off it, may take part, apart from a replacement for an unfit goalkeeper.

How Many Named Substitutes Can a Team List?

Law 3.2 requires competition rules to state the number of named substitutes, from three to fifteen. The Champions League uses 12 and, per its 2022 announcement, the Premier League nine.

Names must be given to the referee before kick-off, and an unnamed substitute may not take part. That includes team officials: an assistant coach listed only as an official cannot enter as a substitute.

Two edge cases follow set rules:

• A named player who arrives late may join during a stoppage with the referee's permission. That player counts as a player, not a substitute, so the allowance is not reduced.
• If a named substitute starts instead of a named player and the referee is not told, the substitute plays on with no card. The matter is reported to the authorities.

What Is the Substitution Procedure, Step by Step?

Law 3.3 sets the sequence:

1. The referee must be informed before any substitution is made.
2. The player being replaced gets the referee's permission to leave, unless already off the field, and exits at the nearest point on the boundary line. The referee may allow a direct exit at the halfway line, for example for injury.
3. That player goes straight to the technical area or dressing room and takes no further part.
4. The substitute enters only during a stoppage, at the halfway line, after the replaced player has left and after the referee's signal.
5. The substitution is complete when the substitute enters the field. The replaced player is then a substituted player, and the substitute is a player who can take any restart.

Until step 5, the team can still choose a different substitute, except after a ten-second breach. If a player refuses to leave, play continues.

What Is the Ten-Second Rule in the 2026/27 Laws?

The 2026/27 Laws added a time limit. The player being substituted must be off the field within ten seconds of the substitution board being shown or, without a board, of the referee's signal. With several changes at one stoppage, the ten seconds run from the last one indicated.

If the limit is exceeded:

• The player must still leave, and play restarts.
• The substitute cannot enter until the first stoppage after one minute of running clock, with the referee's permission.
• The substitution cannot be cancelled and a different substitute cannot be used.
• The player is cautioned only for an excessive delay.

The limit does not apply when injury or safety makes a ten-second exit impossible. Until the substitute enters, the team is a player short, which discourages slow exits.

What Happens When a Goalkeeper Is Replaced or Swaps Places?

Any outfield player may change places with the goalkeeper if the referee is informed beforehand and the change happens during a stoppage. Without permission, play continues and both players are cautioned when the ball is next out of play. No caution applies if the swap happens at half-time or between the end of the match and extra time or penalties.

A goalkeeper can also be replaced by a substitute, including after a penalty is awarded, if the team has changes left and the referee is informed. If an injured goalkeeper cannot be replaced because no changes are left, an outfield player takes over in a distinguishing shirt.

Can a Substituted Player Come Back?

Not in standard football. A substituted player takes no further part. Law 3.2 allows return substitutions only in youth, veterans, disability and grassroots football, with the agreement of the national association, confederation or FIFA.

Competitions may also adopt additional permanent concussion substitutions under an IFAB protocol approved in March 2024. These sit outside the normal allowance and are a separate topic.

How Do Red Cards Affect Substitutes?

Law 3.6 sets four cases:

• A player sent off before the team list is submitted cannot be named in any capacity.
• A named player sent off before kick-off can be replaced by a named substitute. That substitute cannot be replaced, and the allowance is not reduced.
• A player sent off after kick-off cannot be replaced, so the team plays a player short.
• A named substitute sent off, before or after kick-off, cannot be replaced either.

Cards also reach people off the field, because the disciplinary rules cover substitutes and substituted players. In an IFAB example, a player cautioned in the first half and substituted at half-time later shows dissent from the technical area. The referee shows a second yellow and a red, because both cautions came in the same match.

What Counts as Misconduct During a Substitution?

• Entering without permission: a substitute who enters unannounced is cautioned, and if that interferes with play, a direct free kick follows from the point of interference.
• Slow exit: the 2026/27 Laws removed "delaying leaving the field of play when being substituted" from the general list of delay cautions, because Law 3 now covers it.
• Interference when a goal is scored: a substitute on the field who interferes with play can cost the team the goal.

Which Misconceptions Come Up Most?

• "Five substitutions is a worldwide rule." Five is a maximum, and each competition decides.
• "Five substitutions means five stoppages." Changes at one stoppage use one opportunity, and the usual top-level limit is three.
• "A substitute is a player once the board goes up." The substitution is complete only when the substitute enters.
• "A sent-off substitute can be replaced." The Law says no.

How Do You Check Whether a Substitution Was Legal?

Work through three checks:

1. Read the competition regulations for the number of substitutes, bench size and opportunities.
2. Count stoppages, not players. Changes shown at the same minute on a timeline such as RubiScore's usually share one stoppage.
3. Apply Law 3 to the procedure: referee informed, exit within ten seconds, substitute entering at the halfway line.

Law 3 sets the procedure and a ceiling, and the competition sets the numbers. Reading a substitution correctly starts with asking which layer applies.