We thought that it was worth taking a little bit of time to clarify the clean sheets. First and foremost, Koulibaly was substituted according to our OPTA feed at 74 minutes and 7 seconds, therefore by our rules, he will not qualify for a clean sheet.
There are some points to add:
1. The rules have not changed, they have always been 75 minutes and will remain so for the season. However, a player must complete 75 minutes, in the case of Koulibaly, he did not.
2. The change to the explanation in the game guide, was meant to help, but we understand that it has not. The system presents the timestamp in a rounded up fashion and displays it as 75 minutes, which for many would suggest he therefore qualifies for a clean sheet. The underlying data outlines the actual timestamp, which was 74 and 7 seconds.
3. This amendment to the game guide, changed nothing but the text. We will revert this to 75 minutes and add some the the text above, so the rule is clarified. The point about the 76:00 timestamp, was meant to inform managers that if they see this timestamp for a defender, a clean sheet will be awarded.
4. We have checked a number of sources, bbc, sky etc and all list a variety of times. The data feed FL uses, is the official OPTA/STATS PERFORM data, which is the ONLY source we use site wide for awarding relevant points.
Finally, we are not here to catch anyone out, or change rules after the season has started. These copy changes were meant to help explain. Clearly, it has not helped, for which we apologise.
Hoping the attached explanation helps better explain.
Best,
Neil and Andy
