Wednesday, January 28, 2009

South Africa - Zambia to lose international match status?

According to KickOff.com (thanks jonny for the tip), Zambia have used 7 substitutes in their friendly against South Africa, thus breaking FIFA regulations regarding the number of substitutes allowed in an international friendly (only six are allowed according to FIFA statutes).

FIFA will not take action as long as there is no official protest from one of the teams involved, similar to the Trinidad & Tobago - England match last year. Again, thanks jonny for the info!

Should South Africa protest?

How was their FIFA ranking affected by this match?

The average of the last 12 months rose from 264.9 to 268.56, gaining 4 points. So at first glance, the South Africans shouldn't be interested in dropping this match from the FIFA ranking calculations. However, they also need to look at the big picture. If they put on a decent performance at the Confederations Cup, this match against Zambia will make it a bit harder to improve their average.

Should Zambia protest?

Their average for the last 12 months went down from 151.49 to 140.675, losing 11 points after this loss. Of course, they would be interested to protest.

About me:

Christian, husband, father x 3, programmer, Romanian. Started the blog in March 2007. Quit in April 2018. You can find me on LinkedIn.

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