Fans don’t usually keep track of how many substitutions teams make in a football match. Even less so when there is extra time involved when one more is allowed. The fact is that in the World Cup final between Argentina and France, Didier Deschamps made seven substitutions, a unique case in the history of football and one that has an explanation.
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The French coach brought on Marcus Thuram and Randal Kolo Muani for Olivier Giroud and Ousmane Dembele in the 41st minute; Kingsley Coman and Eduardo Camavinga for Antoine Griezmann and Theo Hernández in the 71st; Youssouf Fofana came on for Adrien Rabiot in the 96th; Ibrahima Konate for Raphael Varane in the 113th and finally, as the seventh substitution, Axel Disasi for Jules Kounde in the 121st minute, which was probably the one that surprised because it was the one that did not fit into allotted number of substitutions.
Why were France able to make seven changes in the World Cup final?
The explanation was that the Rabiot – Fofana substitution fell under the “concussion substitution” protocol, which allows you to replace a player at risk of concussion without taking into account either the substitution window or the number of players substituted prior to that moment.
This is an exception that FIFA had introduced for this World Cup and had already implemented since the 2021 Club World Cup.
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It was on January 8, 2021, that world football’s governing body approved the ‘concussion protocol’ to allow substitutions for a concussion or suspected concussion during the Club World Cup, which was being held from February 1-11 in Qatar. It was the first international competition to implement this procedure.
