After the Premier League and LaLiga, now Serie A have also announced they will support any club that won’t release its players for international duty amid COVID restrictions.
The clubs are up in arms over the potential of losing their players for 10 days of quarantine if they are allowed to travel to ‘red’ zones for their international matches.
Even if they are vaccinated, the players will still have to self-isolate for up to 10 days after returning from some countries, including practically all of South America.
The Premier League was the first to take a stand and announce it would support clubs who refused to release their players.
LaLiga followed yesterday and now the Lega Serie A has taken a similar stance with a statement.
“Unlike FIFA’s decision to not extend exceptions for call-ups to countries where quarantine upon re-entry is mandatory, we find these would create competitive disparity between teams who allow their players to travel to these countries.”
FIFA President Gianni Infantino released his own statement earlier this evening, insisting “the release of players in the upcoming international windows is a matter of great urgency and importance.”
Infantino called on the British Government to provide an exemption for professional football players from the quarantine restrictions, but that was rejected.
The English premier league voting to do so yesterday was the epitome of hypocrisy and double standard. The UK currently is very much a red list country. Over 300 deaths in 2 days and average 30K cases. It is just that the government had decided to make Covid a side issue. I hope the players who proudly want to represent their national teams don’t abide by it. Double standard of the lowest order.
According to the UK govt: (elite sportsperson) You must quarantine in a government approved hotel and take a COVID-19 test on day 2 and day 8, unless you are participating in a significant sporting event which is listed in Schedule 11 of The Health Protection (Coronavirus, International Travel and Operator Liability) (England) Regulations 2021.
Evidence
You’ll need to provide written evidence from a UK or English national governing body for your sport of your status as an international elite sportsperson or essential operational or support staff attending the specified competition.
The whole UK ‘quarantine’ system is full of hypocrisy and blatant rip off. Just look at the charges for tests to travel and return. It’s essentially a govt approved scam. Have testing, sure – but not a system where private companies charge ridiculous fees for a service that is basically a scam – and approved by the govt. Unsurprisingly many of these private companies charching inflated fees seem to have links with govt ministers.