Brazilian police opened an investigation on Monday against the four soccer players who violated the country’s health protocol, a fact that led to the suspension of the super classics match between Brazil And Argentina For the 2022 FIFA World Cup Qatar qualifiers.
“We are opening an investigation into the possible crime of ideological falsehood,” the Federal Police told Efe.
The source announced that the footballers involved “have already been notified when leaving the country, which is a standard procedure, and their statements have been officially heard.”
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The investigation also seeks to establish whether there was an “administrative offence” and will be conducted by the Guarulhos International Airport police station, which operates for São Paulo and through which goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez, midfielder Emiliano Buendia, defender Cristian Romero and midfielder Giovanni Lo. Celso.
Martinez and Buendia are active at Aston Villa, and Romero and Lo Celso at Tottenham. After playing with their clubs, these players joined the Argentine national team for the World Cup qualifiers in a three-way match that started last Thursday.
Martinez, Romero and Lo Celso played the six minutes that the match lasted until it was suspended, Buendia on the bench.
The four players arrived in Brazil on Friday with the rest of the delegation from Caracas as Argentina beat Venezuela 1-3 on Thursday.
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The current Brazilian health protocol requires a 10-day quarantine for people who have been in the UK, India and South Africa in the past two weeks.
According to local media, Fernando Ariel Batista, who was identified as an employee of the Argentine Football Association (AFA), was responsible for filling out immigration and health forms for the entire delegation.
However, Batista, the coach of Argentina’s small teams, denied that he was the one who ran out of cards:
The information circulating on my behalf as responsible for completing the largest selection forms. I categorically deny these allegations, my job at the AFC is to coach the selected U-23 and U-20 national team. We will seek clarification with my advisor.
– Fernando Batista (@bochabatista) September 6, 2021
The four players, according to the Brazilian authorities, provided false information about their stay in England during the immigration process, a situation verified by the National Health Monitoring Agency (Anvisa, the organizer), which confirmed, in a note, that the delegation had notified Argentina of the incident.
Anfisa indicated that, on Saturday, she held a meeting with members of the Brazilian Football Confederation, the Argentine delegation, the Ministry of Health and the Regional Health Secretariat in Sao Paulo, where 4 players were isolated.
However, according to the Brazilian health authority, the players ignored it and trained on Saturday evening in a survey of the New Coimica Arena.
Similarly, Anfisa explained that on Sunday itself there was an “attempt” to notify the four players to “immediately” return to their country of origin, but they refused to sign the document handed over by the authorities on the field.
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For its part, the AFC claimed that the footballers were never notified and were “surprised” that there were health prosecutors on the field after 6 minutes of play.
Venezuelan referee Jesus Valenzuela decided to boycott the match after Argentina left the pitch and locked himself in the dressing room. And leave the final decision to FIFA in charge of the World Cup qualifiers.
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