Clash-of-clans – Can a clan member enter a war after it’s started

Currently, only leaders and co-leaders can initiate wars. The clan chat will log the player who started or canceled the clan war search. If you want any more information on clan wars go to their FAQ.

The system will try to match your clan into the highest bracket based on available members, and remember that clan war team sizes are always in multiples of 5.

When a member is "ineligible for war", they're not considered at all when it comes to matching up for the clan war.

In your example, you have 2 people ineligible and 40 people that are eligible. The system will take these 40 eligible people and start a 40v40 war with 2 spectators. If you had 3 people ineligible thus making it 39 people that are eligible, then it would start a 35v35 war with 8 spectators.