World Cup qualifiers in South America and Africa have not ended quite well this week. Argentina was set to play against Brazil in Sao Paolo, but officials from Brazil's health authority interrupted the match in the 10th minute of the game. Their concern was about four players of Argentina who traveled from the United Kingdom. They ordered that these players had to leave the match because of violating the country's health regulations. After this decision, all the staff and players of Argentina left the game and never agreed to be back on the pitch. The decision was announced first by the Argentinian soccer federation on Twitter account.
We have two sides of the story. On one side, Brazilian health officials made their position public before the match, which didn't allow these four players to participate. They had to complete a 14/day quarantine after traveling from the United Kingdom. On the other side, Argentina claimed that they were never told they couldn't play this game and knew about this when the officials stepped on the field. They said this was unfair because Brazil's national team has not done quarantine since they arrived from the United Kingdom.
After the suspension of the game, players reacted to this situation. Messi said that he was dismayed by the Brazilian health authorities' decision to stop the game. He claimed that his team had been in Brazil three days before the match, and they never warned them about this problem.
Another problem for FIFA is the suspension of another game, Morocco vs. Guinea. Morocco's national team has been left stranded at their hotel in Guinea. Morocco said during a statement that they could hear gunshots nearby the hotel all day. Later the defense ministry of Guinea said that some soldiers attempted a takeover of the palace of the president of Guinea. The players of the Morocco national team reacted on social media, telling them that a plane is waiting for them, but they are not allowed to leave the country. For this match, UEFA decided to postpone the match to protect all officials and the players of both teams.
For both these matches, the rescheduling information will be made available at a later date. We have to wait to see the final reaction of FIFA. Will be any penalization?
