Argentina and Brazil, duel for date 6 of Qatar 2022 Qualifiers, was suspended. (Photo: Getty)
Mexico City, September 5 (RHC)-- When the match between Brazil and Argentina was barely 5 minutes old, the Brazilian health authorities came in to stop the match for violation of the sanitary protocol.
After more than 30 minutes of waiting, Conmebol used its Twitter account to officially announce the suspension of the match.
The suspension of the match is caused by four Argentinean national team players: Giovani Lo Celso, Cristian Romero, Emiliano Martínez and Emiliano Buendía, did not comply with COVID-19 regulations, as they come from the United Kingdom.
The stoppage of the match was due to Giovani Lo Celso, Cristian Romero and Emiliano Martinez starting the match in the starting 11. "By decision of the match referee, the match organized by FIFA between Brazil and Argentina for the World Cup Qualifiers is suspended," read the first tweet.
The South American soccer body explained that "The referee and the match commissioner will submit a report to the FIFA Disciplinary Committee, which will determine the steps to be taken. These procedures are strictly in accordance with the regulations in force.
"World Cup Qualifying is a FIFA competition. All decisions regarding its organization and development are the exclusive power of that institution," Conmebol stated in its latest tweet.
Argentina's players, led by Lionel Messi, left the pitch in the middle of the clásico, after the entry of Anvisa officials seeking to enforce a deportation order for four Argentine footballers who play for English Premier League clubs.
"We have reached this point because everything that Anvisa (Brazil's health agency) had ordered, from the very beginning, was not complied with. They were oriented to remain isolated while waiting for deportation, but they did not comply. They move to the stadium and enter the field, in a series of non-compliances", said the director-president of the entity, Antonio Barra Torres, to the TV broadcast.
Barra Torres was referring to goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez and striker Emiliano Buendía, from Aston Villa, and defender Cristian Romero and midfielder Giovani Lo Celso, from Tottenham, who are accused by Anvisa of giving "false information" on their entry to Brazil for the qualifiers for Qatar 2022.
The four players lied on the entry form to Brazil by failing to report that they were in the United Kingdom at any time in the fourteen days prior to their arrival for this pre-World Cup match, according to the entity.
A ministerial order dated June 23 prohibits the entry into Brazilian territory of any foreign person from the United Kingdom, India or South Africa, to prevent the spread of variants of the coronavirus.
"Those four players have to be deported from Brazil. They will be fined and sanctioned for a series of sanitary infractions. The first infraction was for not complying with the isolation, the previous one for not having answered the traveler's questionnaire in a reliable manner, and now for playing. With more than 500,000 deaths in Brazil, in the middle of the pandemic, the orders are not being complied with, I don't know by whom," added the executive.
Martínez, Romero and Lo Celso were on the field, while Buendía was not called up to the Albiceleste squad for the clash against the 'Canarinha.'
The match was interrupted in the 5th minute due to a play action, but a couple of minutes later a group of people, probably officials of the Brazilian health agency Anvisa, entered the field with orders against the four Argentinean players.
In the midst of clashes with some of those officials, the 'Albiceleste' players retired to the dressing room while the eleven Brazilian players are waiting on the field of the Neo Química Arena stadium, formerly Arena Corinthians, in Sao Paulo. Conmebol has already suspended the match.
