The World Cup qualifier between Brazil and Argentina was canceled on Sunday. Shortly before kick-off, the Brazilian health authority ordered a quarantine for four Argentine Premier League players. But three of them were on the field when the whistle kicked off. After almost ten minutes of play, the game was then interrupted, apparently, officials from the health authorities and police officers had caused the Argentine team around Lionel Messi to completely disappear into the dressing rooms. For a long time it was unclear whether it could go on, then the message came that the game would not start again.
The Brazilian health authority (Anvisa) ordered Emiliano Martínez and Emiliano Buendía from Aston Villa as well as Giovanni Lo Celso and Cristian Romero (both Tottenham Hotspur) to quarantine on Sunday before the classic between the South American football powers in São Paulo.
However, Martinez, Romero and Lo Celso were then starting XI.
Only Buendia was missing from the list.
But that was when the chaos really started.
"Anvisa considers the situation to be a serious health risk and has therefore advised the local health authorities to immediately quarantine players who are prohibited from participating in any activities," said a statement from the authority.
In addition, the players should no longer be allowed to stay on Brazilian territory.
Referee stops the game
“It had to come to this because the Argentine delegation had not followed the requirements of the Anvisa right from the start,” said Antonio Barra Torres from the board of the health authority and further explained: “The four players are now being deported from Brazil because of a number of violations fined against sanitary rules. ”The superstars Neymar and Messi on the pitch and representatives of both national associations behind the scenes tried to get the authorities to change their minds to ensure the game could continue. Representatives of the Argentine embassy also made their way to the stadium. But the efforts were of no avail.
Almost 50 minutes after the incident, the referee Jesus Valenzuela (Venezuela) finally broke off the game.
As the host of the World Cup, the world association FIFA will now decide on the next steps.
The Brazilian Selecao, who had not left the lawn during the break, carried out training on the spot after the decision.
Martínez, Buendía, Lo Celso and Romero had come to Brazil with the Argentine national team from Caracas.
Upon entry, the England professionals did not state, according to the Anvisa, that they had been in the United Kingdom, Northern Ireland, South Africa or India in the past 14 days.
Foreign travelers who were there during this period are not allowed to enter Brazil due to the corona restrictions.
The English Premier League clubs had previously refused to transfer players to countries on the British government's so-called Red Corona list, many of them in South America and Africa. Argentina assumed they could count on their England professionals in the three World Cup qualifiers in South America. Aston Villa, for example, had announced that Martínez and Buendía could only play the first two instead of the three games.