The FIFA World Cup Qualifiers for CONMEBOL are here, and some players from Premier League clubs negotiated their way into participating in these fixtures. Other national teams decided for them.
Brazil has several call-ups from Premier League clubs who attempted to withhold their players from traveling. The United Kingdom has South America on its red list for travel regarding the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
Players returning are mandated to a ten-day quarantine, so they’ll be missed fixtures. As national teams are in limbo, Brazil decided to take a proactive approach and withdraw all those summoned from the English Premier League, per Marca.
In total, nine players will not be participating in these World Cup qualifiers, names that include:
Alisson (Liverpool), Ederson (Manchester City), Thiago Silva (Chelsea), Fabinho (Liverpool), Fred (Manchester United), Raphinha (Leeds), Roberto Firmino (Liverpool), Gabriel Jesús ( Manchester City), and Richarlison (Everton).
Following the complications of seeing some of these players leave their club for South America, manager Tite made some call-ups to take players in Brazil and European leagues who aren’t too strict in letting players depart.
Brazil will face Chile on Thursday, while next Sunday, they will face Argentina in a Copa America final rematch. Finally, they will close out the triple date of qualifying fixtures against Peru next Thursday, September 9.