A World Cup qualifier between Argentina and Brazil was deserted amid farcical, confused scenes after 4 Premier League gamers apparently violated Brazilian rules designed to comprise a Covid outbreak that has killed greater than 580,000 Brazilians.
The Aston Villa goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez and Tottenham’s Cristian Romero and Giovani Lo Celso had been all on the pitch at São Paulo’s Neo Química Area on Sunday afternoon when federal police and officers from Brazil’s well being company, Anvisa, took to the sector to halt play after simply seven minutes.
The three gamers and Aston Villa’s Emiliano Buendía, who was within the stands, had reportedly ignored Brazilian guidelines stating that travellers who’ve been within the UK, South Africa or India in the course of the earlier 14 days should quarantine for 14 days on arrival.
In an announcement issued earlier than kick-off Anvisa stated it had acquired reviews that the 4 Argentina gamers, who had flown into Brazil from Venezuela, had offered “false data” on their pre-flight well being declarations. Anvisa referred to as on native well being to position the gamers underneath fast quarantine and “stop them from remaining in Brazilian territory”.
Nevertheless, for causes that stay unclear, Martínez, Romero and Lo Celso had been all on the pitch when the match towards Brazil kicked off. Lower than 10 minutes later there have been weird scenes, as officers marched on to the pitch and introduced proceedings to a halt.
“We’re being humiliated on the world stage. What is going on is profoundly regrettable,” the Brazilian commentator Galvão Bueno lamented as bemused wanting gamers, together with Neymar and Lionel Messi, stood on the pitch ready to search out out if the sport can be restarted. A number of minutes later it was formally suspended.
The Argentina supervisor, Lionel Scaloni, claimed that at no second had his staff been instructed the sport couldn’t be performed.
The on-field hubbub rapidly become a diplomatic and political storm, as members of Brazil’s opposition puzzled why well being officers had not taken such a agency line with the nation’s far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, who has repeatedly flouted Covid containment measures.
“Let’s hope Anvisa reveals the identical firmness in relation to well being guidelines on the occasions promoted by the president, with out masks and vaccines,” tweeted the previous head of the decrease home, Rodrigo Maia.