The CONMEBOL Council decided this Saturday to suspend the double date of the South American Qualifiers for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar in March, given the refusal of the European leagues to cede players due to the coronavirus pandemic.
After holding a new virtual meeting with FIFA, the South American Confederation announced: “The CONMEBOL Council decided to suspend the double date of the Qualifiers for Qatar 2022 scheduled for March. The decision is due to the impossibility of having all South American players in time and form.”.
“FIFA will analyze the rescheduling of the date, in coordination with CONMEBOL and member associations. Soon, the different options for conducting the matches will be studied”. added ..
The announcement does not detail likely dates for the dispute of the fifth and sixth dates, although the expectation of presidents of federations is that they be moved to the months of September or October.
European clubs, especially those in English and German football, protested against the release of the South American national team in the face of the risks of contagion and because in turn they must undergo a 10-day quarantine.
In England, for example, authorities demand that travelers from South America go through ten days of isolation, which would make it impossible for footballers to be present in decisive matches of their clubs.
For this reason, FIFA avoided exerting pressure on these institutions to cede their players to the national teams.
“We don’t have to let the players go and all the clubs agreed that we can’t let them go and then do a 10-day quarantine,” the Liverpool coach said., Jürgen Klopp.
“I understand the different needs of the federations, but we are at a time when not everyone can be satisfied and the players are paid by the clubs. This means that we must be the priority.”, Pointed out the German.
Without being able to count the selectors with their great figures, the situation generated probable scenarios of solution that did not manage to gather the consensus of the ten partner federations of the CONMEBOL.
Some countries, such as Uruguay and Paraguay, proposed playing, according to the March agenda, with players from local leagues. And the option of moving the ten matches of this double program to European territory was even proposed.
CONMEBOL stressed today that the “FIFA is committed to continuing to seek a solution to the stalemate that has arisen so that South American players who play in European leagues are not released in favor of their national teams. “
The entity managed to start the South American qualifiers last year and developed the first four days without setbacks, although there was no public in the stands and under strict sanitary measures.
The protocol was also applied to complete the schedule of the Liberating and South American Cups.
However, the progress of covid-19 in the region has increased in recent weeks with new outbreaks in countries such as Brazil while in others there have been delays in vaccination processes.
In fact, the suspension of regional tournaments to cut the spread of coronavirus cases was announced in Brazil on Friday, and the Colombian Ministry of Health announced that it would not allow the entry of the canarinha team for the match that was scheduled in Barranquilla on the 26th.
The double day of the South American Qualifiers had originally been scheduled for March 25 with the matches Bolivia-Peru, Venezuela-Ecuador and Chile-Paraguay.
The meetings between Colombia-Brazil and Argentina-Uruguay will close on this 26th.
For the initial program, the sixth day would be completed in full on March 30 with the following meetings: Ecuador-Chile, Uruguay-Bolivia, Paraguay-Colombia, Peru-Venezuela and Brazil-Argentina.
At the head of the first four dates, Brazil leads with 12 points out of a possible 12. It is followed by Argentina with 10, Ecuador with 9, Paraguay and Uruguay with 6, Chile and Colombia with 4, Venezuela with 3 and Bolivia with one.