Head of the Colombian football federation slams Premier League for withholding players for World Cup Qualifiers

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The FIFA World Cup Qualifiers are about to kick off for CONMEBOL; however, there’s one issue, the Premier League and La Liga took a stance as they don’t want their players flying to South America to compete in these fixtures. 

The Premier League was the first European league to put out a statement against lending their players to their respective national teams.

In the note, the clubs of England’s top-flight league have decided to reluctantly, but unanimously, not to release players for international matches played in red-list countries next month.

Nonetheless, this decision by the leagues didn’t sit well with the various federations. The main head of the Colombian Football Federation, Ramón Jesurun, was very angry on the Blog Deportivo program (via Marca) and categorically rejected this measure applied by the Premier League.

“We are convinced and confident that they have to release the players because it is part of the FIFA regulations. It is a matter of common sense, and we cannot extend a crisis when there is really no sense to do so. It is not just England, we have a letter from other teams, or they are all, or it is none,” Jesurun said.

“The English and European teams must be called upon to respect the agreement we have. I think that deep down, it is an attack on the Qatar World Cup. What has spread is a matter of releasing players.”

It will be interesting to see what the final decision is as the federations have already contacted FIFA. With the qualifying matches taking place in a few days, they will need to resolve the matter quickly.

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