Originally Posted by Tabasco Sauce

Reproduced from an earlier thread before the ACN :

WORK PERMIT SITUATION :

I just did some digging on the situation with his permit...Angola (who are ranked 72nd in the FIFA rankings) have played a total of 16 matches since the world cup in 2006 (Manucho was not part of the WC squad). Manucho has played in 10 out of those 16 which means he has played in 62% (0r 63% for the really pedantic blokes out there) of the matches. If Angola play 3 matches in the ACN (guaranteed) plus the friendly today, then he would have played 70% of their matches. If they progress further and play 3 more matches (QF, SF and 3rd place/Final match) then he would have had played in 74% of the matches which is still insufficient for a work permit.

What is more likely than Angola making it to the finals, is that they reach the QF and then go out (making 4 matches in the CAN 2008) and he plays in the friendly on 26th March and the WC qualifiers on 30th May and 6th June which gives us a total of 18 caps out of a possible 24 which gets us to the magic figure of 75%. If he misses any of these matches, then we may have to wait till July or September depending on how many he misses.