UEFA is expected to confirm soon that national teams will be able to appoint two extra players in their squads for this summer’s European Championships to help deal with the intense workload caused by the COVID-19 outbreak.
The idea of expanding the squad was first raised by former Polish international Zbigniew Boniek, who called on UEFA’s executive committee to consider ways to protect the fitness of players who have barely had time to rest for more than 12 months now.
Boniek has led the charge for more players | Soccrates Images / Getty Images
Many managers, including England’s Gareth Southgate, Belgium’s Roberto Martinez and Italy’s Roberto Mancini, have all supported calls for more troops, with Italy’s boss even pushing for 26 players.
According to The Times, UEFA agreed to look at Boniek’s proposal, and due to the strength of the support, they are expected to agree to an expansion of two people for this summer’s tournament.
This means that national team managers can now call 25 players instead of the usual 23, and UEFA is also considering allowing teams to include a handful of standby players who would travel with the squad and remain part of their bubble if needed.
As part of their efforts to protect players, UEFA has also chosen to allow teams to make five substitutes in each game rather than standard three.
At the same meeting, UEFA also chose to remove the 30% capacity limit for the stadium they had originally introduced for the tournament, so that the nations could welcome even larger crowds if they could prove that it is safe to do so in advance.
??????? Harry Kane has been involved in 30 goals in 21 qualifiers for England (22 goals, 8 assists)? #WCQ pic.twitter.com/D9cYp1kaJ6
– European Qualifiers (@ EURO2020) 31 March 2021
The English FA is set to use one of the FA Cup semi-finals as part of a fan return test event, and there are also hopes that the final will be played in front of an audience of 20,000 at Wembley Stadium.
If all goes according to plan, England plans to host crowds of up to 45,000 people at Wembley for the semi-finals and final in July, with the FA also prepared to increase the number at short notice if the government council allows it.
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