CONMEBOL suspend March World Cup qualifiers due to travel restrictions

The South American Football Confederation have suspended all World Cup qualifiers scheduled to be held in the region in March due to coronavirus travel restrictions on the region by Europe, according to a statement on Twitter.

“The CONMEBOL Council decided to suspend the double date of the Qualifiers for Qatar 2022 scheduled for March.

“The decision is due to the impossibility of having all the South American players in a timely manner. FIFA will analyze the rescheduling of the date, in coordination with CONMEBOL and the member associations.

“Soon, the different options for holding the matches will be studied.”

The UK where top South American stars play club football have Portugal, parts of Africa and all of South America on red list and any traveler from the region mist quarantine for 10 days on arrival.

Premier League managers including Juergen Klopp, Dean Smith and Steve Bruce have all said during the week that their South American players will not be allowed to travel taking advantage of an exemption rule by FIFA introduced in response to the Covid-19 pandemic until the end of April, which would have allowed Premier League clubs to keep their players within the UK.