August 30, (THEWILL) – Ahead of the international break in football for footballers to report for international duty and begin or continue their country’s qualifying series for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, the hydra-headed issue of health and safety protocols around the prevalent COVID-19 pandemic returned to throw a wrench in the plans of Football governing bodies across the world.
The most recent bottleneck began with the insistence of the Government of the United Kingdom to discourage travel to countries where the COVID-19 virus was prevalent and which it categorised as a “Red List”.
Anyone who necessarily needed to travel to a country on the list, according to the UK’s operative guidelines, was obliged to quarantine for a period of 10 days upon re-entry to the UK.
The extended list of the countries in the UK’s dreaded “Red List” included, in alphabetical order: Afghanistan, Angola, Argentina, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Botswana, Brazil, Burundi, Cape Verde, Chile, Colombia, Congo (Democratic Republic), Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, Eritrea, Eswatini, Ethiopia, French Guiana, Georgia and Guyana. Others are Haiti, Indonesia, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Maldives, Mayotte, Mexico, Mongolia, Mozambique and Myanmar.
Others are Namibia, Nepal, Oman, Pakistan, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Réunion, Rwanda, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Tanzania, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Uganda, Uruguay, Venezuela, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Football teams across England, Scotland and Wales were wont to avoid a forced 10-day quarantine, given that some of their players were bound to engage in international football during the break, which necessitated their journey to one or some of these countries as their home nations or as one of the countries to host an international fixture they are scheduled to play.
Reacting swiftly, the English Premier League (EPL), rather than lose their first team players to extended quarantine periods, made a concerted effort to keep them by issuing a statement that illustrates their determination to withhold their players and keep them in tact rather than release them to make them available for their countries during September’s international break.
The statement from the Premier League provided the rationale for the decision. It reads in part, “Premier League clubs have today reluctantly, but unanimously decided not to release players for international matches played in red-list countries next month. The clubs’ decision, which is strongly supported by the Premier League, will apply to nearly 60 players from 19 Premier League clubs who are due to travel to 26 red-list countries in the September international window.
“This follows FIFA’s current position not to extend its temporary release exception for players required to quarantine on their return from international duty.
Extensive discussions have taken place with both the FA and the Government to find a solution, but due to ongoing public health concerns relating to incoming travellers from red-list countries, no exemption has been granted.
“If required to quarantine on return from red list countries, not only would players’ welfare and fitness be significantly impacted, but they would also be unavailable to prepare for and play in two Premier League match rounds, a UEFA club competition match day and the third round of the EFL Cup. This period takes into consideration 10 days of hotel quarantine on return to England, but does not include any additional time that would be required for players to regain match fitness.”
This immediately placed several countries at a disadvantage, especially Nigeria as far as THEWILL is concerned. This is because one of Nigeria’s opponents in the Qatar 2022 World Cup qualifiers for this international window is Cape Verde and the match has been billed for Tuesday, September 7. However, with Cape Verde on the UK’S list of coronavirus affected countries impacted by the decision, Nigeria’s Super Eagles players across the UK are not going to be available for Gernot Rohr’s squad in that Tuesday tie at the Estádio Nacional de Cabo Verde.
With even more players of the Eagles squad in the EPL this season than before, that will leave out a sizeable selection of the country’s first team players from contention in the fixture. That means no fewer than seven players, such as Alex Iwobi, Kelechi Iheanacho, Wilfred Ndidi, Frank Onyeka, Oghenekaro Etebo, Emmanuel Dennis and William Troost-Ekong, will be unavailable for selection. Also, because Scottish football operates under the UK guidelines, this leaves Semi Ajayi, Joe Aribo and Leon Balogun out of contention next month for the three-time African champions, bringing the total to 10.
This dicey matter is a tough subject to litigate as it is perched delicately on the merits and demerits of how best to approach international sports, while preventing the migration of an infectious virus that is still causing deaths across the globe, in a fluid situation where contact tracing may not be as effective as possible because of how quickly the matches come and go. Therefore, it is understandable that the clubs have risen as one to stand in opposition to the freedom of their players to meet up with their international obligations.
Yet, it must be highlighted that the football governing body, FIFA, working in collaboration with their continental counterpart, the Confederation of African Football (CAF) is directly involved in moving the world cup qualifiers from their initial dates in the June international break to dates in September. As THEWILL reported on Thursday, May 6, in conjunction with CAF and taking into consideration the prevalent disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the need to ensure optimal playing conditions for all teams, FIFA decided to postpone the African qualifiers for Qatar 2022.
The rationale was that with the progress being made in the fight against the virus, accompanied by signs that showed improvements in vaccine administration globally, there will be less need for cautionary measures by September and most of the applicable health and safety precautions at that time in May will have been relaxed for sports events to hold in packed stadiums across the football playing world. However, the reality has not panned out exactly as hoped, a fact demonstrated by the existence of the “red list”.
In an attempt to avoid the crises that will result for many an African team without their star players for the very crucial world cup qualifiers in September, CAF reached out directly to the Government of the UK with a formal request to grant an exemption to African players for the international window as it will enable their countries compete favourably to book their place deservedly in the roster for the next world cup. The statement from CAF reads: “CAF has noted the current circumstances in place in Britain, regarding the lack of sporting exemptions for players returning from several African countries after the international window next week. CAF, acting on behalf of all African Member-Associations, African players and fans, has urged the British Government to urgently provide the required exemptions.”
Arguing its point further, CAF noted that “similar exemptions were granted by the British Government to enable the attendance of delegations and officials, amongst others,” at the finals of the Euro 2020 held less than two months ago. The football body stressed that the circumstances in the African countries on the red-list in many cases “are in fact less severe than other countries not currently on this list or for which exemptions were previously provided” while reiterating that the upcoming matches would be organised under the strict protocols developed by FIFA and applied across the world.
The continental football body concluded, “These protocols have now proven beyond doubt that they mitigate the risks involved, reflecting the success of commensurate protocols applied domestically in England and other parts of the world,” with the appeal that, as a matter of urgency, the Football Association (FA) and the Government of the UK ought to extend “the same treatment previously applied to Europe” to Africa.
The appeal from CAF came on the same day that Spain’s La Liga blocked South American players from joining up with their countries for World Cup qualifiers over the next few months in a protest move against the scheduling of matches. THEWILL had reported in March that CONMEBOL, the continent’s football governing body, had created a 12-day window for a maximum of three fixtures to be fulfilled in September and October, but La Liga believes such an arrangement was a “clear detriment to the integrity of La Liga and its competition” while blaming FIFA for allowing it.
However, just as the agreement to postpone CAF qualifiers to September, it was an arrangement of convenience and caution to prevent the transmigration of the corona virus during international football, given all the logistics and travel involved. There remains no easy way to navigate the problems these restrictions will place on countries that need their footballers for a good shot at qualifying for the Qatar World Cup as COVID-19 continues to interrupt the excitement of international football, even with the best guidelines in place
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
