Leeds United and Sheffield United successfully vote for return to three substitutes

As a concession against the 2019-20 campaign resuming at short notice with a condensed fixture list after the coronavirus lockdown, football's lawmakers made a temporary rule change allowing sides to bring on five substitutes instead of the usual three.

The International Football Association Board, which determines the laws of the game, kept the option open for 2020-21, but a small majority of Premier League clubs have voted against the idea.

The change would have favoured the clubs with bigger squads as it did over the summer, and voting seems to have largely followed those lines, with Chelsea leading the nine clubs in favour, and the Yorkshire sides amongst the 11 against.

Drinks breaks, another concession to resumption football, will also be dropped. They are not being used in the conclusion of the Europa League and Champions League, which is allowing extra substitutions.

Sheffield United were vocal opponents of last season's change, and it was surely an important factor in Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal both leapfrogging the Blades in the final table, with Jose Mourinho's side qualifying for Europe as a result.

Like Wilder, Leeds coach Marcelo Bielsa favours working with a small squad, although he did make particularly could use of his extra changes in the final nine matches of the Whites' Championship ruin-in. West Bromwich Albion and Fulham, who also won promotion in the season just gone, are thought to have voted for a return to three substitutes from seven as well.

Next season will be more condensed, with matches not starting until September 12 because of the delay to the end of 2019-20. Discussions are ongoing about whether clubs involved in the latter stages of the two European competitions, whose finals are not until late August, should be allowed to restart later still.

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