Clubs can refuse to release South American players

Clubs refusing to release South American players for the extended international breaks in September and October will have the support of the Premier League.

The European Leagues umbrella group – which represents more than 900 clubs in 32 professional leagues, including the English top flight – has endorsed a statement from the World Leagues Forum criticising changes to the calendar.

Fifa announced last week that the September and October windows in South America would now be “triple-headers” to accommodate World Cup qualifiers postponed in March due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The South American international window in September runs a day later than the European window, to Sept 9, with the October window now extending to Oct 14, two days longer than the European equivalent. The WLF says the changes will prevent players, such as Everton’s Richarlison, Manchester United’s Edinson Cavani and Liverpool’s Alisson Becker, from fulfilling commitments at club and country level, and force them to choose.

“If South American players join with their national teams in September and October [which by Fifa regulations they are obliged to] they will miss games with their clubs, either because of the calendar amendments, or because of a potential quarantine,” the statement said. “And if they don’t want to miss games with their clubs, they cannot play with their national teams.

“These decisions of Fifa will negatively impact national professional leagues, clubs, players and fans. Fifa has decided to impose the worst possible option.”

The WLF statement was quotetweeted by the European Leagues’ account, adding: “The European Leagues fully supports the position of the @Worldleagueswlf.”