The Premier League have announced today that from next season teams will be allowed to name seven substitutes for league matches, bringing it inline with other competitions like the Champions League.

It is said that it will allow managers to experiment more – and fans will perhaps hope it will mean managers are more likely to name youngsters from academies on the bench and allow them to get matchday experience.

The addition of more subsitutes is something Rafa Benitez, and other managers like Sven Goran Erikkson, has suggested in the past and the motion was proposed by Tottenham at the meeting of the Premier League on Thursday.

A more controversial announcement from the Premier League today though is the proposal to play matches outside of England from 2010 – with clubs being unanimous in exploring the possibilities, which would include extending the Premier League season to 39 matches per team and games being played around the globe in the far east, America and Australia. Each team would play 1 match overseas per season, with ‘big’ games between the top five being kept apart for the games abroad. Any proposal will not be made final for at least 12 months. It does, however, seem inevitable. [Vote and discuss this here]