What would be the pinnacle of South American football in qualifying for the Qatar 2022 World Cup turned into monumental chaos and a strange planet. The Brazil-Argentina match was suspended this Sunday by Brazil’s health inspectors to general astonishment when the ball started rolling. Five minutes after the start of the South American classic, officials from the National Sanitary Surveillance Agency (Anvisa) jumped onto the pitch at the Neo Química Stadium in São Paulo (Corintus) to demand that the clash be quelled immediately, arguing that three of the Argentine Players who are active in the Premier League and on the pitch — Emiliano Martínez, from Aston Villa; and Leave Romero and Giovanni Lo Celso, from Tottenham – lied when entering Brazil after being in England, in violation of the required quarantine. A fourth player —Emiliano Buendía, from Aston Villa—, was also accused of this offence, following the game off the bench.

After the suspension of the match, the Argentine team went into the temporary dressing room canarinha he lives on the sports field. The confusion was immense, in the midst of a global scandal, with players in the midst of dumbfoundedness.

Anvisa, which is the public body that certifies vaccines or medicines, had explained before the game in a note released in the morning that the players Martínez, Lo Celso, Romero and Buendía “did not comply with the rules for the entry of travelers in Brazil. land”. The accusation is that they falsified the declarations travelers must fill out when entering Brazil. They assured, according to Anvisa, that they had not been in the UK in the last 14 days, which is wrong, according to the Brazilian agency, in addition to not carrying out the necessary quarantine.

lex Campos, director of Anvisa, insisted that this was not the expected result. “It was not foreseen that the match would have to be stopped. But they do offense after offense. We asked them not to come out of the hotel, self-quarantine, and finally they were brought to the field. Either we have rules in Brazil (for everyone) or we don’t have them,” he said.

The health surveillance agency detailed on Sunday evening in a note its attempts to isolate four players before proceeding to arrange for their deportation. Anvisa confirmed that on Saturday afternoon it met with representatives from the South American Football Confederation (Conmebol), the Brazilian federation and the Argentine national team to inform them that the athletes had violated anticovid protocols, that they should be confined and would be exiled. expelled from the country. Since their request was not answered, they mobilized the police, with whom they went to the hotel to look for the players, who were already on their way to the field. And the sanitary inspector with the agency then went there.

“You can’t talk about any lies,” defended Claudio Tapia, president of the Argentine Football Association (AFA); “There is a sanitation law and the sanitation authorities approve the current protocol. We have fulfilled everything because we are worried that the players can return to their clubs well. What happened is very regrettable: four people without a chin strap [mascarilla] they enter the field and interrupt the game”.

Despite Anvisa’s accusations, the referee gave the early whistle at the scheduled time. Since the pandemic began, no public event of this magnitude, or even less, has been suspended this way in Brazil by the sanitation watchdog.

The background to the party’s suspension is that the pandemic has killed more than half a million Brazilians. And there is a pulse between two institutions: Brazil’s health agency, which is dependent on the Government, and Conmebol. It negotiated an agreement with the Brazilian Government so that players appointed by the health authorities obtain extraordinary authorization to be able to play the game, as has been the case since the start of the pandemic with other major sporting events. But the health agency insisted the four broke the rules on two points: lying when entering Brazil and not being quarantined.

“A traveler who complies with the provisions of article. 3, with origin or history of passing through the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the Republic of South Africa and the Republic of India in the last 14 days, when entering the territory of Brazil, you must remain in quarantine for 14 days ” , reads the health decree of the State of São Paulo.

As four Argentine players were not confined to Brazil for the past two weeks – before traveling to São Paulo, Argentina against Venezuela in Caracas – Brazil’s health agency activated the police. “In light of the finding that the information provided by the travelers was false, Anvisa clarified that it had communicated the facts to the Federal Police so that appropriate action was taken immediately,” the statement said. The agency stated that the four athletes “are prohibited from participating in any activity and must be prevented from remaining on Brazilian territory.”

The president of the Brazilian Football Confederation, Ednaldo Rodrigues, expressed his discomfort and astonishment at what was happening, and explained that Anvisa informed all the national teams about the rules for entering Brazil and that for three days had been monitoring the Argentine team. He also denied that the Brazilian federation participated in any negotiations. “Never before has the CBF been part of negotiations to place or remove athletes,” Rodrigues stressed, “the Brazilian Confederation respects health standards.”

Brazil hosted the last Copa América after Argentina and Colombia refused to act as hosts due to the effects of the pandemic. Then, Jair Bolsonaro, president of Brazil, reached out to Conmebol. The Supreme Court upheld the celebration following requests for the suspension of the tournament by federal deputy, Julio César Delgado, of the Brazilian Socialist Party, and the National Confederation of Metalworkers. There was also a third request from the Labor Party.

Conmebol concluded in a statement: “The referee and match commissioner will submit a report to the FIFA Disciplinary Committee, which will determine the steps to be followed. This procedure strictly complies with current regulations. World Cup qualification is a FIFA competition. All decisions concerning its organization and development are the exclusive power of that institution”. The great South American classic ends in a strange world.

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