I am not clear on that rule either, but from what I ahve read, the hex and the fourth place playoffs are considered the same competition. It is all part of WC qualifying and suspensions should therefore carry over. Eg. If you got too many yellow cards in the semifinals of qulaifying it would have carried over to the hex. Too many yellows in the hex and you get suspended in the 4th place playoffs or, if you qualified drirectly, you will be suspended in the WC finals. And it has actually happened before, if you get a red card in the last match of qualifying you will sit out at least the first match of the WC in Germany..however if you got a red in a friendly, you miss your team's next friendly......it has to be related. If your team does not qualify for the WC, but you get a red in the final qualifying match, you will miss your country's preliminary qualifiers 2 or 3 years later..
Can someone corroborate this...nice to know if we get to that point