Fifa has, unsurprisingly, authorized the selections participating in the next 2022 World Cup in Qatar to select 26 players instead of the 23 usually imposed.
Fifa justifies this choice by the desire to "deal with the Covid pandemic and the unusual period during which the World Cup will take place".
All 26 players summoned can be entered on the game sheet.
“In order to cope with the repercussions of the Covid-19 pandemic and the unusual period during which the World Cup will take place, writes Fifa, the Bureau of the Council has deemed it necessary to offer greater flexibility for the workforce and thus made the following decisions
”:
• The maximum number of players that can be on the provisional list is increased from 35 to 55.
• Between 23 and 26 players can now be on the final list.
• The date for the last day of interclub matches for the 23-26 players on the final lists has been set for 13 November 2022.
• In total, a maximum of 26 people (up to 15 substitutes and 11 officials, including the team doctor) will be allowed to sit on the bench.
»
This increase from 23 to 26 had already been authorized during the last Euro 2021 across the Old Continent but, with 12 players on the bench, three others were "condemned" to remain in the stands at each meeting.
Thus Moussa Sissoko, Marcus Thuram and Léo Dubois were not registered on the score sheet for the first match of the French team against Germany (1-0) at the Euro.
Didier Deschamps, the coach, is necessarily delighted with this measure, which he already assured in March 2021: “I think that if UEFA is looking into being able to expand the list, it would be a good thing, provided of course that it can be two or three more players, and everyone can be on the score sheet”.