European clubs threaten not to release their players for the Africa Cup of Nations

The European Association of Clubs (ECA) has announced that its members will not consider releasing their international players for the CAN scheduled from January 9 to February 6, 2022 in Cameroon. Eshe worries about health protocol of the event against the backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“To our knowledge, the African Football Confederation has not yet made public a suitable medical and operational protocol for the CAN tournament, in the absence of which the clubs will not be able to release their players for the tournament.“she said in a e-mail addressed to Fifa (International Federation of Football Association).

The European Club Association writes to CAF informing them that they have no intention to release African players for 2021 AFCON in Cameroon.

ECA have been lobbying for tourney postponement since early Nov.

CAF quickly move to quell reports, say AFCON will happen. pic.twitter.com/b1guw4gN7X

– Gary Al-Smith (@garyalsmith) December 15, 2021

In addition to the health protocol of the tournament, the ECA especially points to the risk of an absence of internationals longer than the period of provision provided, because of “quarantines and movement restrictions“linked in particular to the emergence of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus. According to the relaxed rules for the release of internationals, confirmed several times by Fifa since August 2020, clubs can retain their players if”quarantine of at least five days is mandatory from arrival” at the place “where the national team match is supposed to be played“of the player, or at the place of the latter’s club on his return.

The Board of Directors of the ECA, at the beginning of December, reaffirmed, in a letter addressed to Mattias Grafström, FIFA Deputy Secretary General in charge of football, that these principles should be “strictly respected“.”Otherwise, players should not be released for their national team“, judge the ECA. The sending of this letter from the ECA to Fifa comes as rumors accumulate around a possible cancellation of the CAN, or a new postponement of the tournament, initially scheduled in 2021 but postponed for a year due to the pandemic.