European teams start World Cup qualifying campaign
Holders France begin their defence of the World Cup this week as European qualifying for the 2022 finals in Qatar gets underway against a backdrop of confusion and chaos over the release of players in a worrying health context across the continent.
While this month’s scheduled qualifiers in South America were called off and most matches in Asia were postponed, players in Europe have to work their way around travel restrictions in order to join up with national teams.
Fifa’s decision to relax rules forcing clubs to release players during an international window remains in place until the end of April, with world football’s governing body unable to ignore the wider context of the Covid-19 crisis.
The consequences of that have largely been confusion and plenty of backtracking by clubs and authorities in recent days.
Winners in 2018, France host Ukraine behind closed doors on Wednesday before flying 5,500 kilometres to Kazakhstan and stopping off on the way back in Sarajevo for another game against Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The trip has caused some controversy in France, with authorities allowing members of the French team to go to Central Asia and then the Balkans while the French league said it would not release players to travel outwith the 27-nation European Union or European Economic Area (EAA), which also includes Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway.
That was due to clubs being worried about players having to self-isolate for a week on their return, thereby missing their team’s next league game.
A row ensued, with the decision affecting several European nations with players based in Ligue 1, but also many African national teams looking to call up players for Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers.
“I’m not a politician, I’m just an ordinary guy, but it’s not fair. It is not wise at the moment either. We need to stick together and not show discrimination or racism. It doesn’t give a good image,” said Lyon captain Memphis Depay, with the Dutch international at risk of missing his country’s qualifier in Turkey as a result.
