Argentina’s clash in Brazil was brought to a premature end minutes after it started when health officials and police stopped play as they tried to identify Premier League players they believed broke COVID rules.
In response the visitors, led by captain Lionel Messi, walked off the pitch and did not return to finish the match.
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Tottenham pair Giovani Lo Celso and Cristian Romero, as well as Aston Villa duo Emi Buendia and Emi Martinez reported for international duty with Argentina but things were stopped due to a row over falsified COVID documents.
The Argentina Football Association later tweeted a picture of the squad on the plane, with the caption: ‘we are going home’.
It’s been reported that the Federal Government, FIFA and Conmebol struck an agreement that all four players would be allowed onto the field to take part in the match.
However, just minutes into the match, officials from Brazilian health authority Anvisa entered the field of play with police officers to demand the World Cup qualifier be stopped until the four players were off the field and detained.
“By decision of the match referee, the match organised by FIFA between Brazil and Argentina for the World Cup Qualifiers is suspended,” South American football governing body CONMEBOL tweeted.
“The referee and the match commissioner will submit a report to the FIFA Disciplinary Committee, which will determine the steps to be followed. These procedures strictly adhere to current regulations.
“The World Cup Qualifiers is a FIFA competition. All decisions concerning its organisation and development are the exclusive power of that institution.”
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AFP
AFP
Government rules in Brazil state that any person entering the country having recently been in the UK must observe a period of 14 days’ isolation.
However, the squad are alleged to have failed to declare they had been in the UK and were then under investigation by the local authorities.
Lo Celso, Romero, Buendia and Martinez were all involved in the last matchday squads for their respective clubs over last weekend’s round of Premier League fixtures.
AFP
They were not only facing a 14-day quarantine period in Brazil but would also have to isolate for ten days in the UK having visited a red list country.
“These players arrived in Brazil on a flight from Caracas [Venezuela],” Brazil’s health regulator Anvisa said.
“The flight landed in Guarulhos [Sao Paulo]. They declared that they had not been in any of the four countries which are restricted for the past 14 days. Anvisa was warned about supposedly false information given by these players.
“After that, Anvisa sent a notification to CIEVS [in charge of Sao Paolo’s Covid-19 restrictions]. We have to clarify that false information given to Brazilian authorities might be infractions of health laws of the country and might be an infraction of our criminal law.”
News outlets in Argentina report Messi was overheard saying: “We’ve been here for three days, we were waiting to play the match, why didn’t you come earlier? This is a mess, we’re off!”
AFP
The Argentina squad arrived in Brazil on Friday following their win over Venezuela and the Argentina FA are understood to be under the impression they did not need to make the Brazilian authorities aware as they had already indicated to CONMEBOL that the four players were part of their secure bubble.
However, this was not sanctioned by the Brazilian authorities leading to suggestions the players could be deported from the country.
Brazilian officials are said to have visited Argentina’s team hotel in Sao Paulo on Sunday in the hours leading up to their match. The agreement is then said to have have been reached to pass all four players for selection for the fixture.
“It makes me very sad,’ said Argentina boss Lionel Scaloni. “If something happened or did not happen it was not the time to make this intervention.
“It should have been a party for everyone, to enjoy the best players in the world. I would like the people of Argentina to understand that as a coach I have to defend my players. At no time were we notified that they could not play the match. We wanted to play the game, the players from Brazil too.”
Tensions were already high in Brazil, with a meeting of the two rival giants coming weeks after Argentina won the Copa America final at the Maracana, beating Brazil 1-0.
No date for the rearranged fixture has been set with Argentina’s next World Cup qualifier scheduled at home to Bolivia on Friday, 10 September.
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