Clubs do not want to let internationals go: players risk …

Several clubs in 1A and 1B are reluctant to let their internationals leave Europe. Due to the corona crisis, several of them risk a mandatory quarantine when they return to Belgium. Krépin Diatta (Club Brugge), Nill De Pauw (Antwerp) and Michael Murillo (Anderlecht) have been called on hold for the time being. On Friday, FIFA announced that the amended rules will be extended and that clubs will not have to relinquish players who should be quarantined.

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Sporting Charleroi was the first club to be concerned last week. The league leader received calls for his two Iranians, for his Malagasy midfielder Marco Illaimaharitra and for his Bulgarian Ivan Goranov. Negative travel advice applies to each of those countries.

Charleroi and a slew of other clubs went looking for a story at FIFA. The World Football Association has now decided to extend the amended rules, which normally applied until the previous international period, until the end of the year. As a result, clubs should not give up their players if there is a period of quarantine attached to this.

Club Brugge (Krépin Diatta, Senegal) and Antwerp (Nill De Pauw, Congo), among others, doubted whether they would let their players go. Anderlecht (Michael Murillo at Panama) and Oud-Heverlee Leuven (Rafael Romo, Venezuela) also prefer not to let their players go to Latin America.

For others there is less of a problem. Club defenders Simon Deli and Odilon Kossounou have been called up to Ivory Coast, but they will play a friendly game in Belgium next week. Nigeria (including Genk striker Cyriel Dessers), Cameroon (Ghent defender Michel Ngadeu) and Gambia (Sanyang van Beerschot) are also active in Europe. Respectively in Austria, the Netherlands and Portugal.

In 1B, Union lets its 21-year-old striker Ibrahima Sory Bah leave for Guinea. Even if he has to be quarantined for two weeks afterwards.

“It is his first convocation and for those African guys that means a lot,” says Philippe Bormans, the CEO of Union. “With us he is not in the team so we allow him that trip.”

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