For the past couple of months, we’ve covered several controversies regarding Premier League players travelling to South America for international games, with Aston Villa and Tottenham often mentioned.
Besides having stars blocked from joining their national teams, there was also a big match between Brazil and Argentina getting postponed because of the illegal entrance of footballers in the country.
In that event, Aston Villa and Tottenham Hotspur players Emiliano Buendia, Emiliano Martinez, Cristian Romero and Giovani Lo Celso were all supposed to quarantine when landing in São Paulo, and were accused of lying to immigration.
Only five minutes were played in that match, and now according to Conmebol, there should be a new date for that fixture. President Alejandro Dominguez spoke this week to Paraguayan outlet Versus, and claimed that FIFA should let that be decided in a new game.
“The Qualifiers are organised by FIFA, not CONMEBOL. The FIFA Disciplinary Committee will make a decision, we believe that the matches should be defined on the pitch,” said Dominguez (via Marca).
That’s of course another reason for Aston Villa and Tottenham Hotspur to worry, as the schedule in South America has been pretty tight.
Argentina already played two games in the current break, and are now set to play Peru on Thursday, with the players then flying to England for the Premier League games at the weekend.
