It's the match that never was. Fiasco over England v Trinidad substitutes

FIFA have launched an investigation after confirming that they did not give special dispensation to allow England to use seven substitutes in Sunday's 3-0 victory.

Lost his cap: Ashton (right) could have his debut annulled

Technically, it means the game may no longer be regarded as a national A-team match, which in turn could leave the FA having to tell England's players that the game did not count.

Dean Ashton, Joe Hart, Phil Jagielka and Stephen Warnock, who was the controversial seventh substitute, could be told their first international caps will not be recognised. Ditto Gareth Barry's first international goal and David Beckham's 59th appearance as England captain.

The FA insisted that they had received dispensation after manager Fabio Capello asked Trinidad and Tobago officials to let him make 11 changes. After being informed of the controversy, an FA spokesman said: 'We were under the impression we had dispensation.'

Later, the FA appeared to be shifting the blame on to FIFA vice-president and CONCACAF president Jack Warner.

They issued a statement which read: 'The fact of the matter is the opportunity to use seven substitutes was cleared in advance of the game by FIFA, Trinidad and Tobago representative Jack Warner, the FIFA delegate for the game and the match referee.

'There is no way we would have gone ahead with using seven subs without the approval that we were given.'

But after exhaustive checks with all the relevant officials, FIFA confirmed that the laws of the game had been broken.

In a statement released last night, a spokesman said: 'We can confirm that FIFA did not give special dispensation to make up to seven subs.'

It could cause huge embarrassment to Brian Barwick in particular. As chief executive, he was the most senior FA official in Port-of-Spain.

As well as possibly costing England FIFA ranking points, it could sour relations with the same Trinidad officials whose support they were hoping to gain ahead of the 2018 World Cup bidding process.

Warner, one of the most influential men in football, is unlikely to be impressed by the whole episode.

England have returned to the top 10 in the FIFA world rankings, climbing two places to ninth after last week's victories over the U.S.A. and Trinidad and Tobago.

Scotland have dropped two places to 17th but Northern Ireland are up two in 32nd, 10 places ahead of the Republic of Ireland, who fall one spot. Wales are also down one in 53rd.