Exclusive: Premier League clubs vote against adoption of five substitutes rule for new season

Premier League clubs have voted against the adoption of the five substitutes rule for the 2020-2021 season at a shareholding meeting on Thursday morning, with 11 of the 20 against the proposal.

The vote emphatically failed to reach the threshold of 14 needed to make the law change for the new season – with opposition from clubs outside the elite who felt it would hand an unfair advantage to those wealthier clubs with bigger squads. Next season the Premier League clubs will go back to just three substitutes.

In addition, there was a 10-10 tie in the vote to increase matchday squads to 20 and therefore they will go back to 18, as they were before Project Restart.

Among the 20 clubs were the three newly-promoted teams - Leeds United, West Bromwich Albion and Fulham - all of which are understood to have voted to return to three substitutes and a bench of seven players rather than the nine implemented for Project Restart.

Earlier this year as the game came out of lockdown, the clubs voted for the use of five substitutes and drinks breaks for the resumption of the 2019-2020 season in June in order to protect players.