After news emerged that the Premier League would not allow players from the league to travel abroad to countries in the ‘red-zone’ list, other top European leagues – La Liga and Serie A – are said to follow suit.
FIFA’s inflexibility in changing the international calendar has forced leagues and clubs to keep hold of their players ahead of the FIFA World Cup 2022 qualifiers, African Cup of Nations and the FIFA Arab Cup in many countries that are on UK, Spain and Italy’s red list.
Most of these nations are either in South America or Africa.
Clubs will lose their players for a period of up to ten days of mandatory quarantine upon return, even if they are vaccinated – amounting to at least two sacrificed match days – a step respective top-level management are not ready to take.
Premier League first announced their support for clubs who refused to release their players, with La Liga and Serie A taking up similar stances.
FIFA president Gianni Infantino released a statement mentioning that the release of players in the upcoming international break is a matter of ‘great urgency and importance’.