Norwich head coach Johannes Hoff Thorup hit out at the FA for banning Kenny McLean less than five hours before their 0-0 draw with Portsmouth at Fratton Park.
The Canaries captain was handed a retrospective four-match suspension midway through the afternoon for an elbow on QPR winger Kieran Morgan on Saturday.
It meant Thorup was forced to make a late change to his starting XI and the Dane said: “I’m very surprised as it opens up the opportunity for a completely different competition.
“I’m looking forward to Sunday and the team we prepare and play against will be completely different with possible suspensions.
“The FA have opened the door to make decisions and even present the news on game days to the team. It is a completely new world for us.
“I can’t go into detail because Big Brother is watching but it is impressive we came away with a suspension.
“It doesn’t give away too much to say Kenny was part of our preparations but at 15:00 GMT we had to change our line-up.
“That is apparently how it is. It isn’t what I’m used to and there is nothing else I can do but accept it. But it is a surprise to everyone working in professional football.”
The Canaries overcame the decision to secure their third clean sheet of the season but didn’t create enough to force a victory.
Their best chance came towards the end of the first half when Borja Sainz’s misplaced pass deflected off Pompey defender Terry Devlin and forced a full-stretch save at the near post.
“The short story is the point is okay with us,” said Thorup. “The attitude and character from the boys was outstanding and what we needed after the defeat to QPR.
“Ideally in the future we have to be better and we need to find the balance between a hard fight and earning the right to play and find the moments to dominate.
“We’ve been talking about risk reward and today there was low risk so there wasn’t much reward.
“It was important to keep a clean sheet and important to prove to ourselves we can put on a fight but in the future we have big ambitions.”
Portsmouth escaped the relegation zone for the first time since August and are now four matches unbeaten as their season begins to come alive after one victory in their first 14.
Head coach John Mousinho, who thought Connor Ogilvie’s strike shouldn’t have been ruled out for a foul on goalkeeper Angus Gunn, said: “It was a really hard-fought point.
“We are delighted with the performance but slightly disappointed with the result as I think we expected to win the game. But if you can’t win, don’t lose.
“We were superb from start to finish. It was 97 minutes of hard graft.
“It is psychologically a boost to get out the relegation zone but it is a bigger boost to put in back-to-back performances together.
“Hopefully, the players now know they belong at this level and have adjusted but we need to push on.”
