Fears of Covid have prompted European clubs to threaten to bar players from competing in the Africa Cup of Nations

European clubs have threatened to withhold their players’ participation in the Africa Cup of Nations due to a lack of precautions in place to prevent them from contracting coronavirus.

The European Club Association expressed its dissatisfaction with the organisers’ implementation of tight rules to avoid the spread of the disease in a letter to Fifa seen by Telegraph Sport.

 

The ECA also stated that players would not be released for the January 9 to February 6 tournament until after their clubs’ final fixtures, which would mean Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane would be available for Liverpool’s crucial Premier League encounter against Chelsea on January 2.

The letter was sent on Friday, a week after an ECA board meeting at which it was agreed that players would only be released for the Cameroon tournament if the above two principles were followed, as well as a third requirement that players would not miss club matches upon their return due to quarantine rules.
Because of the rapid development of the omicron version of the disease, the Covid-19 situation has worsened since that December 2 meeting.

“As you know, the pandemic and its associated implications raised three fundamental concerns for clubs when it comes to the release of players to national teams: first and foremost, the clubs’ duty to ensure each and every player’s wellbeing is properly protected; second, that clubs are not forced to be without players for club competition matches; and third, that all players return to their clubs in a timely fashion following national duty.”

“Please note that, in its meeting on December 2, 2021, the ECA executive board unanimously reaffirmed its position that the three criteria referred to above must be carefully adhered to, and that, if this is not the case, players should not be released for national team duty,” it continued.

“At the moment, these three criteria are in danger of being disregarded in relation to the planned January releases.

“As far as we are aware, CAF has not yet made available a proper medical and operational protocol for the AFCON event, without which clubs would not be allowed to release players for the tournament.”

“Domestic competition matches are due to take place up to early January for certain teams slated to release players, notably English and French clubs, and hence the overlap of the 2022 AFCON release dates (with call ups starting on December 27th) is unmanageable.”