The effects of the five substitutions rule introduced due to COVID-19 pandemic in football on the game and game actors

The Covid-19 pandemic has caused many changes in the football branch, as in all areas. In order to protect the health of athletes in football during the pandemic process, the rule of changing 3 players has been temporarily increased to 5. Later, the 5 player substitution rule was made permanent. The aim of this thesis is to examine the positive and negative effects of the 5 substitution rules on the game and its actors. Mixed research design, in which quantitative and qualitative research methods are applied together, was used in the research. The "Causal Comparison Method" was used in the quantitative dimension. Quantitative analysis was in the form of comparison of seasons in terms of in-game variables, substitution times and player injuries. In the Qualitative Section, "Case Study Method" was used. The interviews in the qualitative research were conducted with 12 football players and 12 coaches. Quantitative data were analyzed with the SPSS.20 program. Content analysis was carried out by coding and theming the qualitative data with the NVIVO10.0 program. In the study, variables such as "temporary injury numbers", "shots not hitting the goal", "blocked shots", "yellow cards", "total number of passes", "total number of attacks", "number of dangerous attacks", "substitution periods" statistically significant differences were found according to the seasons (p<0.05). When the qualitative findings of the research are examined, the most coded themes regarding the positive opinions of the participants are "removal of tired players from the field", "contribution to the coach", "characteristics of the player", "involvement of players with high energy / not tired", "providing a positive effect", "more number of players involved in the game", "the effect of the new player on the game is high", "expansion in the cadres", "reduction in sports injuries", "protecting the player", "positive effect on the health of the athlete", "5 substitutions are considered sufficient". The theme with the most negative coding was found to be "decreased game speed". As a result, it can be said that the reflections of the rule change are at a positive level and the game actors are generally satisfied with the rule change, from the quantitative findings obtained by the comparison of the seasons covered in the research and the participant interviews conducted within the scope of the research. It is thought that the results of this research will contribute to the football sport by revealing the positive and negative effects of the rule change.