Premier League to allow five substitutions

LONDON - The Premier League will allow five substitutions for the rest of the season once it resumes, announced the English top-flight football league on Thursday.

The Premier League have set June 17 as the provisional date of resuming the season after all elite football games in England were suspended in March 13 due to the outbreak of coronavirus.

In the meeting on Thursday, the Premier League shareholders agreed temporary changes to the rules relating to substitute players.

"For the remainder of the 2019-2020 season, the number of substitutes that can be used during a match will increase from three to five players." read the statement released by the Premier League.

"This is in line with the temporary law amendment made by the International Football Association Board last month."

The 20 clubs also approved to increase the maximum number of substitute players on the bench from seven to nine for the rest of the season.

The Premier League teams were allowed to start small-group, non-contact training from May 19 and got the permission to resume contact training on May 27.

The Premier League have undertaken five rounds of testing for coronavirus among players and club staff and there were 13 positive cases out of 5,079 tests.