Playing international football during the coronavirus pandemic might be more complicated than we thought.
Good thing that you can rely on CONMEBOL to show us how far a little creativity goes.
Boca Juniors will play against Libertad of Paraguay in the Copa Libertadores, and they plan on travelling with 18 players that were tested positive for the virus.
According to the new regulations of the WHO, which were also approved by the Argentine Ministry of Health, positive cases that demonstrate 14 symptom-free days are considered to have recovered. The confirmation from the Argentine authorities was enough for CONMEBOL to allow the players to travel.
On the other hand, the regulations in Paraguay are different. In order to enter the country, the players need to display the negative results of a coronavirus test. Another issue lurks behind the scenes, that supports the Paraguayan authorities in refusing to let the Argentine squad into their country. The coronavirus regulations that were approved by CONMEBOL state that players without a valid negative test are forbidden from playing. It's a similar regulation that was also supported by UEFA and other football governing bodies.
You could probably say this kind of clashes only happen in CONMEBOL. We have already witnessed some mind-boggling decisions in South American football that seem impossible anywhere else on the globe. “Vergüenza Mundial!” read the headlines when the 2018 Copa Libertadores final was moved to Madrid. There weren’t too many words left when Qatar was invited to the 2019 Copa America tournament.
This time however, it's not CONMEBOL’s fault. The whole world is facing the problem of organizing matches under current circumstances. Recently, the Russian FA refused to postpone Rostov's game against Sochi when all the squad was quarantined. After the youth team was fielded and lost 10-0, the FA came to their senses, postponing all matches. All over the world, leagues are trying to keep themselves alive and none of them have a secret formula for a perfect solution.
UEFA faced such problems in international matches too. Slovan Bratislava was supposed to play in the Faroe Islands at the Champions League qualifiers stage, but their squad was quarantined upon landing. UEFA suggested that they will field the reserve team - who also had to quarantine. Two weeks later, during the UEFA Nations League matches, the Czech Republic national team had to call up two different squads after the first one wasn't permitted to play in the second match.
It’s unclear how long this situation will last. With predictions of the coronavirus remaining a global problem this upcoming winter, decision-makers have to think of longer-term solutions rather than ready-made patchwork for single scenarios. After finding a solution for playing football domestically, FIFA and the continental federations will need to figure out how to continue carrying out international matches.
Some creative solutions have been made, such as playing the later stages of the UEFA Champions League in Portugal or the current tournaments in the AFC Champions League. The question remains whether these bodies are creative and flexible enough to make resolutions that would minimize the negative effect on teams, players, associations - and most importantly, the fans.
