Argentina's Premier League quartet BANNED after Brazil chaos

02/14/2022

Argentina’s Premier League quartet BANNED for two international matches after Brazil World Cup qualifier was abandoned over ‘dirty tricks’ from players to skip quarantine as FIFA order match is replayed at later date

Four Argentina stars have been suspended for two international matches
Health officials invaded the pitch in Brazil’s World Cup qualifier versus Argentina
All four players were accused of breaching Brazil’s Covid quarantine protocols
Brazilian and Argentinian federations have been fined thousands for the incident
Brazil v Argentina’s qualifying tie has been ordered to be replayed by FIFA

Four Argentina stars based in the Premier League have been suspended for two international matches in relation to the abandoned World Cup qualifier against Brazil last September.

Aston Villa duo Emiliano Buendia and Emiliano Martinez, along with Tottenham’s Giovani Lo Celso and Cristian Romero, were hit with the sanction by FIFA’s disciplinary committee over a failure to comply with the world governing body’s return to football international match protocol.

The match on September 5 was called off after Brazilian health officials came onto the pitch in Sao Paulo over an alleged breach of Covid-19 rules by the quartet.

Health authorities stormed the pitch in Brazil versus Argentina to detain four Premier League players

The four English-based players all left the UK despite the Premier League stopping teams from playing in red list countries

Lo Celso and Romero are currently on loan to Villarreal and Atalanta respectively from Spurs.

The FIFA disciplinary committee has ordered the qualifier to be replayed at a location and date to be set by FIFA, and has fined the Brazilian and Argentinian federations 500,000 and 200,000 Swiss francs respectively over order and security breaches – around £400,000 and £160,000 each.

Each federation was also hit with a further 50,000 Swiss francs (just under £40,000) fine over the abandonment.

Following the chaos and confusion, Argentina’s players walked off the pitch at the scenes

Argentina’s players walked off the pitch after the Brazilian health authority officials came onto it.

The four Argentina players were alleged to have declared false information on official forms to the country’s authorities and in doing so broken Covid-19 quarantine rules.

Romero and Lo Celso started the match, along with Villa goalkeeper Martinez, but Buendia was not in the matchday 23.

Romero and Lo Celso were understood to have travelled to South America for international duty against Spurs’ wishes.

Premier League clubs had made a collective decision not to release players during last September’s international window if it meant them travelling to red-list countries as they would face 10 days of quarantine on their return.

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