The Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) has issued a ban on eleven of their national football team players from playing for their respective Premier League clubs for a period of five days.
Brazilian players from Manchester United, namely, Fred and other clubs like Liverpool, Manchester City, and Leeds United have been barred from featuring their players in their upcoming fixtures, dated from 10th September to 14 September 2021.
This implies that Fred will not be called up for the Premier League fixture with Newcastle United on 11th September and the Champions League match with Young Boys on 14th September.
This proposition had been given to FIFA, on account of the mentioned players not reporting for international duty in the last weeks of August for their matches against Chile and Argentina. The Brazilian football team will also be facing Peru tomorrow, 10th September, where evidently none of the Premier League players will be making their appearances.
FIFA has approached this proposal by invoking Article 5 to enforce the issued ban.
Annexure 1, Article 5 says, “A player who has been called up by his association for one of its representative teams is, unless otherwise agreed by the relevant association, not entitled to play for the club which he is registered during the period for which he has been released or should have been released pursuant to the provisions of this annex, plus an additional period of five days.”
This decision of the Brazilian Football Association has likely risen after the Premier League had made a statement on their website on 24th August 2021 saying, players from English clubs will not be allowed to travel to the United Kingdom’s red-list countries.
The statement on the website read, “Premier League clubs have today reluctantly but unanimously decided not to release players for international matches played in red-list countries next month.”
“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 matchday 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.”
A report from BBC Sports suggests that the Premier League Clubs have remained hopeful that the players “will be cleared to play this weekend”, though none of the clubs have responded to the ban.
