Brazil vs Argentina suspended as officials threaten to deport players

Argentina's World Cup qualifier against Brazil has ended after just seven minutes due to a row over coronavirus protocols.

Antonio Barra Torres, the president of Brazil’s health agency, said four Argentina players will be fined and deported for allegedly not following the country’s Covid-19 rules.

Four of Argentina’s players from the English Premier League - Aston Villa players Emiliano Martinez and Emiliano Buendia, and Tottenham duo Giovanni Lo Celso and Cristian Romero - had been ordered to quarantine by Brazil’s health agency ahead of the match. Despite this order, all but Buendia started for Argentina.

The team has since left the country, with the Argentina national team posting a picture on Twitter of squad members on a plane on Sunday captioned “We’re going home!"

The Argentine FA said it had “deep discomfort” surrounding the suspension of the match.

In a statement, it added: “Like the CBF, the AFA is surprised by the actions of ANVISA once the game started.

“It should be noted that the Albiceleste Delegation was in Brazilian territory since September 3 at 8am, complying with all current sanitary protocols regulated by CONMEBOL for the normal progression of the Qualifiers heading to Qatar 2022”.

The four players in question over breaking protocol flew to Argentina despite the Premier League not wanting players to be released for international duty due to the need to quarantine for 10 days on their return. Now they have been caught up in Brazilian quarantine restrictions.

After their players walked off the pitch, Argentina tweeted that the game, which was at 0-0, would not resume.

South American Football Confederation CONMEBOL announced on Twitter that the match had been suspended. It added that the referee and match delegate would now provide a report for FIFA’s disciplinary committee, which would decide what action to take. Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni said he and his players were sad by the turn of events, and that both teams would have liked to play the game.

“A match between some of the best in the world ends like this. I would like people in Argentina to understand that as a coach I have to take care of my players. If people come and say they have to deport them, I will not allow,” Scaloni told channel TyC Sports.

“We wanted to play the match, so did the Brazilians.”

Brazil’s soccer confederation interim president Ednaldo Rodrigues said he found the decision of the health agency to be “strange.”

“At no moment was the Brazilian soccer confederation in favour of this,” he told TV Globo.

Brazil players stayed on the field after Argentina left, and started doing training exercises. Federal police were outside the stadium to escort the Argentina squad.

Brazil’s health agency, Anvisa, said in a statement before the game that all four told immigration officers they hadn’t recently been to the United Kingdom or anywhere else that Brazil puts on its own red list for Covid-19 risks.

“Anvisa considers this situation to be a serious health risk and therefore has guided local health authorities to impose immediate quarantine of the players, who are stopped from taking any activity and must be stopped from remaining in Brazilian territory,” the agency said.

Video footage showed Lionel Messi, bizarrely wearing an official photographer’s bib, talking with officials and Brazil players.

Brazilian and Argentinian media quoted him as saying: “We have been here for three days. Did you wait for the game to start? Why didn’t you warn us before?”

But ANVISA chief executive Antonio Barra Torres told Brazilian TV station Globo: “We reached this point because everything that ANVISA guided, from the first moment, was not fulfilled.

“They (the players) were instructed to remain isolated to await deportation. But it was not fulfilled. They moved to the stadium, entered the field, there is a sequence of non-compliances.”

Several England-based players did not travel because they would have to undergo mandatory hotel quarantine on their return. The decision was guided by their clubs.

Brazil lost nine Premier League players for the international window, including five frequent starters. It also lost two Zenit St. Petersburg players minutes before boarding a flight to Chile because their club called them back to Russia. FIFA granted two additional catch-up days for South America in September and October so three qualifiers can be played in each window, rather than the usual two. It also told soccer body CONMEBOL there will be consequences for clubs which don’t release players as required, which could mean disciplinary action. The complaints from European clubs also centre on South America’s third game being on September 9, a Thursday. That is less than two days before domestic leagues resume in Europe.