Olympic soccer players who sustain minor injuries during the 2024 Paris Games can be replaced by an alternate and return to the official roster later in the tournament, FIFA confirmed on Thursday.
If the player who was originally on the 18-player roster gets healthy, they can return to the roster in place of the original alternate. They could only return in place of a different player on the 18-player roster if that person is injured, ESPN confirmed with a FIFA spokesperson.
The news comes days after it was publicly discussed by several managers, including United States women’s national team head coach Emma Hayes, and only two weeks before the start of the competition.
The tweaked rule is a step away from FIFA and the International Olympic Committee’s hard line on limiting soccer rosters to 18 players, which has long been a complaint of players and coaches.
World Cup rosters historically allow for 23 players (26 at the 2022 men’s World Cup, to account for the COVID-19 pandemic).
Still, the rule gives coaches less flexibility than three years ago at the Toyko Olympics, which were delayed a year until 2021 and played behind closed doors due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
This summer, an alternate may only replace one of the 18 rostered players for medical reasons.
Official tournament regulations state that a member of FIFA’s medical team must verify the player’s injury.
If an alternate is placed onto the 18-player gameday roster, they will earn a medal if their team finishes on the podium.
Alternates who do not replace players from the 18 would not earn a medal, which is the historical standard.
“Sometimes I wonder why they didn’t just say it’s 22 players, but I don’t make the rules,” Hayes told CBS Sports earlier this week. “But I certainly believe in a whole squad so I know everybody will count.”
Three years ago, last-minute confirmation of rule changes effectively gave each team a 22-player roster to account for the heavy load of matches those players competed in coming out of the pandemic shutdown.
Coaches could freely select from all 22 players for each 18-player gameday roster.
A player who was originally designated as an alternate in Tokyo needed to participate in a match to be eligible for a medal, which led several teams in medal contention to try to get all 22 players on the field for at least one minute.
FIFA and the IOC remarked at the time that the “more flexible approach” was “an exception for the Tokyo 2020 Games and does not create a precedent for future Olympic Games.”
Pressure remained from coaches and federations to increase the roster size permanently.
Player loads are at an all-time high due to the increasing demands of playing for both club and country, and the tension boiled over ahead of the 2023 Women’s World Cup in Europe and the United States as national teams sought to conduct training camps outside of FIFA windows.
A settlement was reached in each case.
The 2024 Olympics will mark the second straight Games in which the 18-player rule has been bent.
Previously, alternates could only permanently replace injured players for the duration of the tournament.
Eighteen-player rosters have been the standard for the men’s and women’s tournaments since 2000.
The women’s tournament debuted in 1996, when women’s teams could roster only 16 players.
