The Breedon Highland League has voted to allow teams to make five substitutions during games.
Following discussion at the division’s annual general meeting in Keith last night, the proposal was voted through.
It means from next season sides will be able to field nine players on the bench and bring on five during matches.
In all four divisions of the SPFL, as well as the Scottish Cup, League Cup and Challenge Cup, five subs can be made.
However, the Highland League had previously opted to stick with three subs.
During this season, a number of managers publicly called for change and now they have got their wish with the 18 clubs opting to introduce the extra subs for next term.
League secretary John Campbell said: “I think it’s been a long time coming, we’re aligning ourselves with pretty much the rest of Scottish football.
“It’s good for the clubs, it’s good for the spectators and it will allow clubs to utilise their squads better on Saturdays.
“Those that are working within the Highland League are not scared of change if it’s for the benefit of the product we’ve got.
“They can see that having five subs gives them the opportunity to have more young players in the squad and potentially give them more opportunities.
“From a tactical standpoint, it may allow managers to do some different things as well.”
Conference League on backburner
In recent weeks much of the talk in Highland League circles has been about the proposed Conference League.
However, last week a special league management committee meeting was held to allow clubs to discuss that.
As a result, at the division’s AGM the focus was on other issues.
The Highland League as a single body does not have a vote on the Conference League proposal.
But the individual clubs, as members of the Scottish FA, will all be able to vote on the idea for a new fifth tier at the SFA’s AGM at Hampden on Tuesday June 6.
Campbell added: “Since the resolution about that came out it’s been pretty clear what the SFA are looking to do.
“The difficulty for the Highland League is that we don’t have a vote – we have members with differing views and we don’t want to stifle that.
“Clubs can think for themselves, they can take on board what their fans are saying.
“All we want to do is to protect the product we’ve got.
“The discussions we’ve had in relation to the Conference League have mainly been to promote clubs using their vote for their benefit in terms of how they see Scottish football moving forward – whether they want a Conference League is their choice.”
