City follow Liverpool in refusing to release players for World Cup qualifiers
Manchester City will join Liverpool in refusing to release their players for next month’s World Cup qualifiers because of coronavirus quarantine rules – and others could follow in a mounting club-versus-country crisis.
The Daily Telegraph has been told City will not let Ederson and Gabriel Jesus play for Brazil. That came after Liverpool informed the Egyptian and Brazilian football associations that Mohamed Salah (Egypt), Roberto Firmino, Alisson and Fabinho (all Brazil) would not be allowed to travel to any countries on the UK’S red list.
They are unlikely to be the only clubs to do so after the Premier League and other members of the
World Leagues Forum said this month that they would “fully support” those who refused to release players for international duty.
Travelling to a red-list country during the window would mean Premier League players missing domestic matches while they are placed in hotel quarantine for 10 days upon their return.
But failure to turn up for what are equally important World Cup qualifiers would risk a sanction from Fifa amid a fixture backlog caused by the Covid-19 crisis.
The world governing body previously staved off a club-v-country row by a combination of postponing matches and allowing teams to refuse to release players for internationals if it meant them having to quarantine.
The postponements have led to both next month’s and October’s South American qualifiers being changed from double to triple headers amid fears it would otherwise be impossible to squeeze in all the games before the World Cup begins.
Clubs and leagues have reacted with fury to what they have branded a “unilateral” decision by Fifa, one which could deprive them of players even in the absence of quarantine restrictions.
The European Club Association wrote in a letter to its member clubs: “Fifa’s decisions were taken unilaterally and against the explicit objection of ECA and the rest of the stakeholders.
“ECA has made clear that it will not accept that a governing body like Fifa abuses its regulatory function in order to place its commercial interests and those of its member associations above the physical well-being of players and legitimate sporting interests of clubs.”
The Egyptian FA announced on its website that Liverpool said they would not release Salah for his country’s World Cup qualifiers against Angola in Cairo next Thursday and in Gabon three days later.
It said: “The Egyptian Football Association has received a letter from Liverpool FC apologising for the inability of its player, Mohamed Salah, to join the national team in its next camp, which includes facing Angola in Cairo and Gabon in Libreville.
“The English club’s letter referred to the precautionary measures applied in England to tackle the outbreak of the coronavirus around the world, which puts returnees from some countries in compulsory health isolation for a period of 10 days upon their return to England. [Liverpool] also expressed its hope that the Egyptian Federation would understand that it was forced to do so.” Liverpool were last night said to be prepared to allow Salah to play in Gabon because it is a country not on the UK’S red list. However, Brazil are due to play Argentina, Chile and Peru next month and all four countries are on the UK’S red list, leaving Firmino, Alisson, Fabinho, Ederson and Jesus facing the prospect of missing all three of their country’s matches. Stars from Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur, Aston Villa and Newcastle United were also caught up in the potential tug of war.
Fifa did not respond to requests for comment on what sanctions, if any, Liverpool, City and others would face for refusing to release players.
But The Telegraph has been told it was hopeful last night an agreement could be struck that would mean the UK Government relaxing quarantine restrictions for the fewer than 100 affected England-based players amid ongoing talks between the Football Association and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. Ministers controversially agreed to do just that for VIPS and others attending the climax of the European Championship at Wembley.
In a previous statement on the issue, Fifa said it was “confident” players would “be able to travel to play with their national teams and return to play with their clubs”.
The Premier League and DCMS both declined to comment.