Futbol fans! The long wait is finally over!
On Wednesday, the Premier League resume its activity after a prolonged pause to the season due to current Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
June 17th brought two matches and most importantly brought an exciting return.
It's good to be back 💪 pic.twitter.com/JmbfBBkSat
— Premier League (@premierleague) June 17, 2020
So What’s New?
Many things were very different from the normal day living of the league.
Some of those new things included empty stadiums and empty benches as well. So what else was new upon return?
On May 8th, FIFA announced an amendment made to law #3, adjusting the amount of substitutes allowed and ensuring the healthiness of the players remains of primal importance.
Per FIFA.Com the summary of law # 3 looks like this:
“Law 3 – The Players – Temporary amendment
In summary:
- Each team will be permitted to use a maximum of five substitutes.
- To reduce disruption to the match, each team will have a maximum of three opportunities to make substitutions during the game; substitutions may also be made at half-time.
- If both teams make a substitution at the same time, this will count as one of the three opportunities for each team.
- Unused substitutions and opportunities are carried forward into extra time.
- Where competition rules allow an additional substitution in extra time, teams will each have one additional substitution opportunity; substitutions may also be made before the start of extra time and at half-time in extra time.
The use of return substitutes is not an option for senior competitions”.
Additionally, a water break in each half was mandated as a preventative measure of dehydration on the players.
What Else Did It Bring?
The return of the league and players to action also brought a common theme going on around the world, the “Black Lives Matter” subject.
It is of no surprise that the subject came across, many of the players in the English league are of color and while we don’t hear much about it here in America, racism is still a very vivid point in Europe too.
All the teams around the league had on the back of their jerseys “Black Lives Matter” along with the players individual number.
For the opening matches of the Premier League, player names on shirts will be replaced by Black Lives Matter.
A sleeve patch will feature on shirts for the rest of the season.
There is #NoRoomForRacism, anywhere ✊🏽✊🏾✊🏿 pic.twitter.com/JZVfrzUpjM
— Premier League (@premierleague) June 19, 2020
In every match played, players and referees took 2 different moments of silence. The first minute of silence was to pay respect to some of the players of color who were in the league and are now legends, and the other minute of silence was to kneel and raise awareness that racism has no place in this world and definitely not in the sport.
The #PL supports all those who are opposed to discrimination in any form
#NoRoomForRacism pic.twitter.com/nrob607J3A— Premier League (@premierleague) June 19, 2020
In Conclusion…
It was extremely exciting for us futbol fans to see the league return to action!
One of the most exciting matches was between Tottenham and Manchester United in which we got to see Jose Mourinho face his previous team, Manchester United, and we also got to see how Paul Pogba and Bruno Fernandes mash up and let me just say as a Manchester United fan, I am incredibly excited to see how the rest of the season will go for the club with those two in midfield.
~Diego Galvis (@Diego_TheDJ)
