Following the official announcement Premier League players visiting red list countries during the international break will have to undergo a ten-day quarantine when returning to England, Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp showed his dissatisfaction about it.
The manager claimed that even though the footballers will be able to train and play for their clubs, it’s not fair to have them isolated in a hotel during their time off, as they can’t even stay with their families.
Now it seems this opinion is the common one at Liverpool, because when speaking to the Brazilian media at the weekend, goalkeeper Alisson has basically said the same.
The 29-year-old was interviewed by ESPN Brasil following the match against Manchester City on Sunday. And when asked if the international issue is solved now that he’s travelling to Brazil for the World Cup Qualifiers, he claims the situation still isn’t the way he wishes it to be.
“Solved I don’t say, because they solved a problem with another problem for us players,” Alisson told ESPN Brasil.
“We’ll be representing our national team, which is our obligation, it’s also something that we are all very honoured to do, to honour our shirt and to represent our country. Going there and doing this, we’re far from our family, and when we come back, we have to stay away from them for another 10 days.”
“Even respecting all the strict protocols that football has, at the national team even stricter, protocols according to FIFA, same secure protocols here in the Premier League. We players here in the Premier League, at the peak of the pandemic, we played, we started football before any other type of entertainment or any kind of work because of the trust in these protocols. And now it seems that there’s no confidence in the protocols of the authorities.
“The government has encouraged players to get vaccinated, and we vaccinated ourselves, all fully vaccinated. And yet, despite all that I’ve said, we have to go back and quarantine. We in no way want to be privileged. We just want the decisions taken to be coherent with what really exists. We understand the situation the world is in, which is a complicated situation, but the decisions that were taken make no sense at all. So I believe a lot of people agree with that. Maybe someone might not agree. But that’s my thinking regarding quarantine.”
Back in September, when Brazilians weren’t able to travel for the international games, Liverpool midfielder Fabinho also complained about it when speaking to the local media, saying the players wanted ‘a solution’.
Now it seems the solution found by the Premier League and the UK Government isn’t exactly what they expected.
