The Conmebol council decided on Saturday to suspend the double date of South American qualifiers for the Qatar 2022 World Cup in March, given the refusal of European leagues to give up footballers due to the coronavirus pandemic.
After organizing a new virtual meeting with FIFA, the South American Confederation announced: “The CONMEBOL Council has decided to suspend the double qualifying date 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 consider rescheduling the date, in coordination with CONMEBOL and member associations. The various options for organizing the matches will be explored soon.”. added ..
The announcement does not detail the likely dates for the five- and six-day dispute, although the federation’s presidents are expected to move in September or October.
European clubs, especially those of English and German football, have demonstrated against the release of South American teams because of the risk of contagion and because on return they will have to be quarantined for 10 days.
In England, for example, authorities require South American travelers to go through solitary confinement for ten days, which would make it impossible for footballers to play decisive matches for their clubs.
For this reason, FIFA has avoided putting pressure on these institutions to hand them over to national teams.
“We don’t have to let the players go and all the clubs agree that we can’t let them go and then do a 10-day quarantine,” said the Liverpool manager., 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 we have to be priorities.”stressed the German.
Without being able to count the selectors with their big figures, the situation generated probable solution scenarios that failed to gather the consensus of the ten Conmebol member federations.
Some countries, such as Uruguay and Paraguay, have proposed playing with local league players according to the March agenda. And the option of transferring the ten games of that double program to European territory was proposed.
Conmebol stressed on Friday that “FIFA is committed to continuing to look for a solution to the stalemate that has arisen because South American players playing in European leagues are not released in favor of their national teams. “
Last year, the entity managed to start the South American qualifications and developed the first four days without counterattacks, although there was no public in the stands and under strict sanitary measures.
The protocol was also applied to complete the program for the Libertadores and South American Cups.
However, the advance 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 in Brazil was announced this Friday to stop the spread of coronavirus cases, and the Colombian Ministry of Health announced that it will not allow the Canarinha team to enter the match that was scheduled in Barranquilla on the 26th.
The South American Qualifying Round was originally scheduled for March 25 with the Bolivia-Peru, Venezuela-Ecuador and Chile-Paraguay matches.
On the 26th, the meetings between Colombia-Brazil and Argentina-Uruguay will end on that date.
Due to the initial schedule, the sixth day will be fully completed on March 30 with the following meetings: Ecuador-Chile, Uruguay-Bolivia, Paraguay-Colombia, Peru-Venezuela and Brazil-Argentina.
After the first four rounds, Brazil leads with 12 points out of 12 possible. They are 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.