Due to the unpredictable nature of the current health crisis, strict preventive measures and regulations were introduced to ensure the safety of everyone involved in sports. Football, however, presents a unique challenge because it is a contact sport. As leagues resume play, new health protocols have turned simple actions, such as spitting on the turf, blowing a nose, or general perspiration, into complex regulatory dilemmas that the sport is still trying to navigate.
There is an ongoing debate over whether spitting should actually be penalized. For instance, the Romanian Federation has already handed out bans to several players caught spitting during matches. However, on May 27, 2020, FIFA clarified that while individual competition managers or associations can implement their own protocols, detecting these incidents in real-time is incredibly difficult. Pierluigi Collina, representing the FIFA Referees Committee, informed referees that disciplinary decisions remain at the discretion of the match organizers. Some executives argue that issuing yellow cards for this would disrupt the flow of the game and be unfair, noting that while spitting *at* another person remains a red-card offense, spitting on the ground should not be treated as severely.
Earlier this month, FIFA introduced several strategies to get football back on track after a long hiatus. One major change is the update to the substitution rule, increasing the limit from three to five players to help teams manage the congested 2020 calendar. While this rule was initially intended for the current year's competitions, FIFA is considering whether to extend this flexibility into 2021 to ensure all postponed matches can be completed smoothly.