Bayern denied Lewandowski and Alaba, French clubs will not send players to the African Cup
The danger of a global short circuit, even in football, was a hypothesis that since the ball returned to roll it has always remained there, hidden but not too much. The commitments of the national teams in the middle of the football season and the Covid pandemic that shows no sign of doing less damage, they are doing the rest. In view of the qualifiers for the 2022 World Cup and of Africa Cup, around Europe there are several thorny cases of players unable to respond to the summons due to travel restrictions. Excluding the South Americans, for which CONMEBOL has suspended the qualifying round, from France to Poland but not only, the tension is increasing, traveling on the very fine line of common sense and regulation.
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If Bayern Munich does not intend to release Robert Lewandowski e David Alaba for the matches of Poland in England and Austria in Scotland at the end of March, due to the problem of quarantine on returning from away matches, according to the regulations currently in force in Germany, the issue is decidedly more complicated in France where those who are blocked are many players called for the African Cup.
The summons of the national teams involved in the qualifying matches for the African Cup of Nations will be heavily conditioned after the players of the League 1 and of League 2 – the top football leagues in France – it was forbidden to leave Europe. The forty teams of Ligue 1 and 2 unanimously voted to prevent their members from leaving the EU and the European Economic Area, due to the quarantine period they would have to undergo on their return to France, due to fears related to infections from Covid-19.
In the absence of an exemption for foreign players made available to their national teams and given the response times imposed by international regulations, the Ligue 1 and Ligue 2 clubs have decided to unanimously apply the Fifa circular of 5 February 2021, keeping account of the many travel restrictions in the world, “the LFP, the body that manages the Ligue 1 and Ligue 2 leagues in France, said in a statement.
The football federation of Senegal tried to ask the French correspondent for the green light, defining “discriminatory” the choice that would deprive the Senegalese selection of at least 12 of the 26 called up by the coach. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Fifa has relaxed its rules on summoning players to the next series of national team matches, allowing clubs to retain their players if quarantine is mandatory upon return.
There is also trouble there Poland, who risks losing his three top strikers in one fell swoop. In addition to Lewandowski, in fact, also Krzysztof Piatek and Arkadiusz Milik may not be able to respond to the call-up for the next matches valid for the World Cup qualifiers against Hungary, Andorra and England. Although the general secretary of the Polish Football Association, Maciej Sawicki, has assured that every effort will be made to ensure that everyone is available to coach Paulo Sousa, the rules in force in Germany and France also push Hertha Berlin and Marseille to deny players to the national.
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