Coach Jürgen Klopp raised the possibility of the Liverpool players withdrawing from the World Cup qualifiers at the end of this month, saying that “it is simply not possible” for team members to spend 10 isolated days in a hotel after their return.
Direct travel to and from red list countries is banned in the UK, and all of South America and Portugal are still under these strict measures. Liverpool have three Brazilian internationals, Alisson, Fabinho and Roberto Firmino, and Portuguese striker Diogo Jota, who will probably be called up by their countries at the end of this month.
Anyone returning from Red List countries must be quarantined in an airport hotel for 10 days, with no exemptions for elite athletes, and manager Liverpool Klopp has acknowledged concerns about the potential impact of flying players across the country. world for World Cup qualifiers.
“It would be great to have more information, but we don’t get it,” Klopp told a news conference on Wednesday. “I think FIFA was pretty clear, they said we shouldn’t let the players go this time and I think all the clubs agree that we can’t let the boys go and solve the situation when they come back with our players. in a 10-day quarantine in a hotel or whatever.
“It’s not possible. I understand the need for different federations, but this is a time when we can’t make everyone happy. So we have to recognize that clubs pay players, which means we have to be new. The priority.
“It means we all understand the different needs, with the competitions that will appear in the summer, I understand. But you can’t make everyone happy at the same time in this period of our lives.
“People need time to make decisions, and we don’t think too much about it because we’re not influential in it, we’re just dealing with things other people have decided.”
“But I think everyone agrees: we can’t let the players go and play for their country and then quarantine them for 10 days in a hotel. We can’t do that.”
The South American qualifiers from the CONMEBOL region present the highest risk of disruption, and Brazil’s matches against Colombia and Argentina will probably involve more Premier League players.
But with FIFA granting clubs to retain players for this qualifying round in the event of COVID-19 problems, Klopp said clubs’ interest should come first.
The rate of COVID-19 infection in the UK has fallen in recent weeks, as the government has now set a roadmap for relaxing social distance measures, with all restrictions to be lifted sooner.
But despite progress in the UK, Klopp said clubs are concerned that players may abandon their safe COVID-19 bubbles to join their international teams.
“First of all, we are concerned, yes, about all the things that have happened in terms of the virus in recent months, when someone had to get out of the balloon,” he added. “Inside the balloon, we were not without cases, but we were without cases for a long time and it never spread.
“There were two periods: the last international break, when there were more cases than before, and the Christmas period, which was a challenge for the whole society.
“And now, in England, everything is going in the right direction and it looks positive and promising, but yes, we are concerned about things.”
CONMEBOL will meet internally on Wednesday and will have a virtual meeting with FIFA President Gianni Infantino, scheduled for Thursday to discuss the issue.
Sources told ESPN that CONMEBOL leaders are not thinking about playing ball and will not play the qualifiers without their European players.