Question Number: 15769

Law 3 - Number of Players 6/12/2007

RE: rec Under 10

Catrina of holland landing, ontario canada asks...

can we substitute our players if the opposing team has an injured player and is taking them off the field???

Answer provided by Referee Steve Montanino

That depends upon the league's rules of competition where you play, they may have tinkered with the laws of the game as these are the littlist of kids were dealing with here.

According to the laws of the game a substitution may be made at any stoppage in play provided that the substitute meets all of the requirements of law 3 when the ball leaves play to complete the proceedure properly.

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Answer provided by Referee Chuck Fleischer

In all cases the substitution procedure in Law 3 must be complied with. The exception is when a player is injured and can't continue. She may be replaced with a substitute that was not ready at the time play stopped.

Regards,

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Answer provided by Referee Richard Dawson

Hi Catrina,
In my opinion usually No!
While allowances are made for a substitution of an injured player for a player to come off the technical area to centre then into play as a stoppage of play the opponents could only substitute if they had already indicated they wished to sub before the stoppage by sending their subs to the centre line earlier. Mind you how strict are the referee or league is in applying substitution conditions ? Not saying you should mind you! Cheers

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