Brazil’s World Cup qualifier with Argentina was stopped on Sunday night just seven minutes into the game, as the health authorities came onto the pitch to halt proceedings.
On Sunday evening it was reported that Brazilian police had been ordered to deport four Argentina players who had travelled with the squad, all from the Premier League.
According to current regulations in the country, Emiliano Buendia, Emiliano Martinez, Giovani Lo Celso and Cristian Romero were all meant to quarantine for 14 days before entering.
Their failure to do so threatened to stop their appearance in the game, although CONMEBOL claimed they would award Argentina the points if the game didn’t go ahead.
Martinez, Lo Celoso and Romero all started the game but less than 10 minutes into the game authorities entered the pitch and demanded a stop to proceedings.
Premier League teams had initially tried to stop their players from going to South America to take part in the three games during the international break.
Countries in that region are on the UK’s ‘red list’ which means people going there must quarantine for 10 days when they arrive back.
Players playing in midweek wouldn’t get back till about Friday and would then have not been allowed out for 10 days, with no possibility to train.
That would have meant players missing the next two weekends of league games, as well as Champions League and Europa League games for those in Europe.
With no chance to train, players would then have had to recover their match fitness, all with the possibility of them going back on international duty in October for the next break.
