The news of the Champions: 5 changes, empty stadiums …

As often happens season after season, this edition of the Champions League 2020/21 also arrives with some tweaks. If the VAR was introduced two seasons ago from the round of 16 and last season the video refereeing was based on all the competition, this year the great novelty lies in the extension of the number of changes that each team can do per game.

After soccer returned after the coronavirus pandemic, the UEFA allowed that each team could do five changes instead of three to avoid injuries due to the lack of pace of the players. Of course, to do it, each team I could only interrupt the game in three times at most to make your substitutions. Last Thursday September 25th, just a week ago, the Executive Committee of the UEFA approved that this new regulation will also apply during this season in all its competitions due to the very compressed calendar of this course. Consequently, the number of players allowed in the minutes of each game will be increased to 23 at most.

Empty stadiums. The other great novelty of the competition is also caused by the COVID-19 crisis: until further notice, the Champions League and Europa League matches will be played door closed. At first, UEFA considered opening the stadiums for 25% of the public and even experimented with this in the European Super Cup who faced Bayern with Sevilla at the Puskas Arena in Budapest, which was attended by 15,000 fans. However, the outbreaks in much of the continent and the forecasts of a second strong wave of infections have made the decision to reopen stadiums do not study again until early 2021.