Tuesday 16/December/2025 – 10:12 PM
The friendly match between the Egyptian national team and the Nigerian national team ended this evening at Cairo Stadium, which came as part of the two teams’ preparations for the African Cup of Nations in Morocco.
The number of substitutions takes away the international character of the friendly Egypt and Nigeria
It was confirmed once and for all that the match between Egypt and Nigeria was not considered an international friendly match, after the number of substitutions made by the Egyptian national team in the match exceeded the maximum allowed in international friendly matches.
FIFA instructions limit substitutions in international friendly matches to a maximum of 6 substitutions per match, while the Egyptian national team made 7 substitutions during the match.
In addition to the number of substitutions, assigning the management of the match to an Egyptian team of referees created an obstacle before the start of the match for it to be considered an international friendly match, given that the nationality of the match referee is of the same nationality as one of the two parties to the match. However, this obstacle could have been overcome if both sides of the match agreed to the nationality of the referee, but the number of substitutions in the match exceeded the maximum allowed in international friendly matches, ending the chance of the match being considered an international friendly match.
Accordingly, the match will not be counted among the monthly classification points added to the balance of the Egyptian and Nigerian national teams, knowing that the classification points will not be very influential in the coming period due to the lack of a draw in which either team may participate soon, as the last draw in which the Egyptian national team participated was the 2026 World Cup draw.
