The drama around the international break has been especially big this time, with Covid-19 restrictions causing all kinds of problems.
Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United and Leeds United didn’t release their players for Brazil duty, meaning manager Tite called up other options to replace them.
Then CBF made an official complaint to FIFA, which, as it stands, would see Liverpool without Alisson, Firmino and Fabinho for a period of five days after the break, Manchester City would lose Ederson and Gabriel Jesus, Manchester United couldn’t count on Fred, and Leeds United wouldn’t be able to pick Raphinha.
Obviously, the Premier League clubs aren’t happy about this and efforts are continuing to resolve the situation, the argument is that health restrictions need to come above everything else.
Now Tite has said something which would appear to strengthen the case of English clubs. In a press conference ahead of his side’s match against Peru, the manager talked about potential repercussions following the farcical scenes between Brazil and Argentina.
When asked the fairest decision FIFA could make regarding the abandoned game, Globo Esporte quote him as saying: “A fair decision is to respect laws, a fair decision is first and foremost the health of people. The fair decision is that the sport is important, but it has a scale of importance in which health is above, the laws are above.”
Clearly, it wouldn’t be consistent if he feels that but still wants to see Premier League clubs sanctioned and players forced to travel to red list countries for upcoming matches.
If these comments don’t already form part of the argument being used by Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United and Leeds United, then they certainly should.
