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#Post#: 44--------------------------------------------------
CONMEBOL's dilemma with Europe-based players for World Cup
qualifiers
DIR By: The Referee
Date: September 7, 2020, 8:48 pm
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Sep 5, 2020
Tim Vickery
South America correspondent
While the European teams are in action in the Nations League,
South America is sitting out the September FIFA dates.
Two rounds of World Cup qualifiers had originally been scheduled
for this month, but they fell foul of the sad fact that most of
the continent has been unable to bring the coronavirus pandemic
under control.
The clock is ticking. South America's marathon format of World
Cup qualification -- all 10 nations meeting each other home and
away -- was supposed to kick off at the end of March, when all
international football was cancelled. Missing out on two FIFA
dates means that the continent is already four games behind
schedule. If the action does not kick off in the next FIFA date,
then fitting all 18 rounds in before the 2022 World Cup starts
to look like a problem.
- CONMEBOL not letting COVID slow down return to club games
- Vickery: CONMEBOL's World Cup qualifying is under threat
On Friday, FIFA confirmed the calendar of matches for next month
but that is not necessarily the end of the story. There is much
to be done before World Cup qualification in South America can
make its belated beginning.
The Copa Libertadores, the continent's equivalent of the
Champions League, is due to restart in the middle of next week.
This is no easy undertaking. CONMEBOL, South America's football
federation, has had to work long and hard in difficult
circumstances. In four of the 10 nations, the domestic leagues
have yet to return. Colombia hopes to get going later this
month. But there is no start date for Argentina, Bolivia or
Venezuela.
Such caution is understandable. In training for the resumption
of the Libertadores, 18 players from Argentina's Boca Juniors
tested positive for the virus. Further north in Brazil, reigning
continental champions Flamengo currently have both their first
choice goalkeepers out of action for the same reason. It is
precisely for this reason that CONMEBOL have allowed clubs to
register 40 players in their squads instead of the usual 30 --
to provide enough cover to replace those who are forced out of
action.
The risks are clear, but many of the clubs are desperate for a
return of the continent's premier club competition and the
revenue that it generates. And so CONMEBOL took it upon
themselves to smooth out some of the big problems.
One was logistical. How could the teams travel to away games
efficiently and safely? Distances are vast and travel
connections can be precarious at the best of times. The answer
was for CONMEBOL to pay for charter flights -- ensuring not only
that teams could get to away games, but also that they could do
it in isolation, without coming into contact with other
passengers.
This was is part of a detailed health protocol which ensures
that visiting players will have minimal contact with anyone at
the airport, hotel or stadium. And this in turn was vital for
the governments of the 10 countries to agree to open their
borders to travelling football teams, and not to enforce
quarantine regulations on them as they enter, or when they
return to their country of origin.
This is all very well inside South America. But it becomes much
more complicated with the World Cup qualifiers, because the
players have to assemble from all over the planet.
The star names, of course, are in Europe. A way has to be found
to get them safely across the Atlantic. Then, with one game home
and one away, they face another journey, possibly a long one,
inside South America. And then they fly back to Europe to rejoin
their club sides.
Any European club would be reluctant to release players in these
circumstances. First there is the risk of contamination, and
then there is the question of quarantine restrictions on their
return to Europe. South American governments may have agreed to
wave these restrictions for footballers, but will European
administrations be as willing? In this case CONMEBOL cannot
bring political pressure to bear. Can FIFA? It looks like a
stretch.
For the time being, the October FIFA dates are in the calendar.
But at the moment it is unclear how they can go ahead in South
America, which could be going into November with its World Cup
qualifying programme a full six rounds behind schedule.
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