BEVERLY HILLS, March 06, (THEWILL) – FIFA President Gianni Infantino met with South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL) on Saturday via video with finding a solution to the travel restrictions facing the upcoming World Cup Qualifiers on the agenda.
As reported by THEWILL, several top European clubs announced they will prevent their players from competing in World Cup qualifying fixtures due to COVID-19 transmission fears over travel and the lengthy isolation consequences. This resulted in an impasse for South American countries whose key players ply their trade in Europe and who need them to get results.
The FIFA-CONMEBOL talks, therefore, centred around the double header of qualifiers scheduled for March 25-26 and March 30 for the 2022 Qatar World Cup.
At the end of the meeting, the CONMEBOL Council decided to suspend the double date of the Qualifiers for Qatar 2022 scheduled for March taking into cognisance the impossibility of having all the South American players in a timely manner to execute their qualification matches.
FIFA agreed to this and committed to the rescheduling of new dates, in coordination with CONMEBOL and the member associations.
It is as yet uncertain if other football confederations will reach the same conclusions or if FIFA will extend the same postponements across board as some of their players will be similarly affected by the restrictions on travel and fears of infections.
About the Author
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
