FA lose battle over limit on substitutions

A new series of club versus country disputes looks inevitable following the controversial decision by the International Football Association Board to limit the number of substitutes in friendly matches to six, a move which has infuriated Sven Goran Eriksson and the Football Association.

From July, the England coach will no longer be able to strike deals with Premiership managers to use their most precious assets sparingly in warm-up games, creating potential problems at the start of the 2006 World Cup qualifying campaign.

Saturday's decision by the IFAB, the guardians of the laws of the game, to restrict the number of replacements was taken despite desperate efforts by the FA chief executive, Mark Palios, and its executive director, David Davies, to persuade Fifa and the three other home associations who make up the IFAB not to impose any ceiling.

When that failed, they attempted to get agreement for seven substitutes but in the end had to be content with a compromise of six, one more than the world governing body had originally requested, but still too few to satisfy the England coach, who later denounced the new ruling as "wrong".

Last night, the Irish FA's general secretary, David Bowen, brushed aside the FA's argument that it had garnered the support of almost every major European coach for unlimited substitutions. "The reason why they got so many coaches to support them is that they, too, were under pressure to play ball with clubs in their own countries," Bowen said. "I don't think just playing for 45 minutes is good for football. It's terrible for the paying public to see their heroes for only half a game."

Meanwhile, it emerged yesterday that new guidelines will be shortly be issued to national federations in order to end the widespread confusion over the offside law.

Although the issue was not on the agenda at the IFAB meeting, they have acknowledged the need to clarify the new interpretation which came into effect last October in order to improve attacking play but has resulted in a spate of controversial decisions, with forwards deliberately staying behind the last defender to gain an unforeseen advantage.

"We are going to tighten up the rules on what constitutes interfering with play or an opponent," one IFAB board member said. "Too many coaches, especially in England, are trying to take advantage of the new interpretation and we need to make it crystal clear that this will soon no longer be permitted."

Another measure taken by the IFAB involves the scrapping of golden and silver goals after the European Championships in Portugal and a return to the traditional format of extra-time and penalties for settling drawn international matches.