What's behind the "60-day rule" surrounding Salzburg's Kitano

In theory, the rules are clear:

Every participant in a UEFA competition must submit a fixed squad, registered before the first league phase match and compiled based on specific criteria. This squad cannot be altered until the next phase of the tournament – namely the knockout round play-offs – except to add home-grown players.

FC Salzburg nevertheless made a change ahead of their Europa League away match at RSC Anderlecht (Match report>>>). Sota Kitano was dropped from the squad, with his Japanese compatriot Anrie Chase called up as a replacement.

Mysterious 60-day rule

This move was made possible by the so-called "60-day rule". It allows any club to replace a long-term injured player once during the league phase with a player who was already registered with the club prior to the original submission deadline for the UEFA squad list.

Kitano is out until at least the end of the year after suffering an ankle ligament injury against LASK. Once the 60 days have passed, however, the attacking midfielder could be re-registered for the Europa League squad and thus feature in the final league phase matches against Bayer Leverkusen (21 January 2027/away) and Crystal Palace (28 January 2027/home).

Whether Kitano will even be fit again by then remains up in the air. Coach Danny Röhl said: "We don't know exactly how long Sota will be out. It looks a bit more serious."

No comebacks in defense

The German also provided a general update on injured defenders Nikolas Veratschnig, Kevin Boma, John Mellberg, and Dominik Schmid. None of them will be fit in time for the Bundesliga clash away at SK Sturm this coming Sunday.

On a positive note, Röhl was able to give attacking duo Jesper Lindström and Damir Redzic some minutes on Thursday as they returned from injury.