Brazil tries to deport Premier League’s Argentina stars mid-game

World Cup qualifier match suspended as authorities invade pitch to remove Argentina players over alleged Covid breaches.

Health authorities interrupt the match as they argue with players of Brazil and Argentina. Picture: Getty Images

Brazil’s World Cup qualifier against Argentina descended into chaos on Sunday night when the authorities attempted to deport three Premier League players over alleged Covid breaches.

Brazilian health officials walked on to the pitch after four minutes to detain Tottenham Hotspur’s Giovani Lo Celso and Cristian Romero and Aston Villa’s Emiliano Martinez, leading the match in Sao Paulo to be suspended.

The Brazilian authorities accused the players of having not completed a mandatory 14-day quarantine for people who enter the country from the UK. The three players, along with Villa’s Emiliano Buendia, who is with the Argentina team but was not in the squad on Sunday, were involved in Premier League matches last weekend.

Argentina had been in Brazil for two days after a 3-1 win away to Venezuela on Friday. The row began two hours before kick-off when health authorities released a statement accusing the players of declaring false information, saying that they had informed the police of the breach and asked for the players to be deported. But Conmebol, the governing body of football in South America, said they should be allowed to play.

Argentina's Lionel Messi, left, and Brazil's Neymar are seen after employees of the National Health Surveillance Agency entered to the field. The match was suspended amid the confusion. Picture: AFP

The intervention follows days of rows over which Premier League players were allowed to travel to red-list countries. Nine Brazil players at top-flight clubs in England were not allowed to join up with their international team, but the four Argentina players reached agreements with their clubs about playing some of the international games, although all will have to quarantine and miss at least one game on their return to the UK.

“Why didn’t they pick us up at the hotel?” Lionel Scaloni, the Argentina head coach, said. “At no time were we notified that they could not play.”

The Times