Definitively suspended the match between Argentina and Brazil for Qatar 2022

Neymar and Lionel Messi speak with Brazilian health officials at the World Cup qualifying match in Qatar that was postponed, on September 5, 2021.Sebastiao Moreira (EFE)

There will no longer be a South American soccer summit before the 2022 Qatar World Cup. The qualifying match suspended in September last year five minutes into the first half will not be played again.

The federations of both countries —AFA and CBF— agreed before the FIFA Court of Arbitration for Sport (TAS) that this monumental mess will be settled with a fine of 157,000 dollars for the Argentines, but without football.

Both teams had already anticipated that the meeting would alter the last stage of their preparation for the World Cup, without the result, whatever it may be, altering the positions of the South American qualifying table.

On September 5, 2021, the Brazil-Argentina match was suspended by Brazilian health inspectors five minutes into the match.

Officials from the National Sanitary Surveillance Agency (Anvisa) jumped onto the field of the Neo Química Stadium in São Paulo (Corinthians) to demand that the clash be immediately paralyzed on the grounds that three of the Argentine players who play in the Premier League and were on the field —Emiliano Martínez, from Aston Villa;

and Cuti Romero and Giovanni Lo Celso, from Tottenham – had lied when entering Brazil.

According to the complaint from the Brazilian side, the players falsified the declarations that travelers had to fill out when entering Brazil.

They claimed, according to Anvisa, that they had not been to the UK in the last 14 days, which was false,

Both teams qualified for Qatar at the top of the table, with one game in hand and no losses.

FIFA's delay in defining the fate of the 85 minutes that had remained pending became a problem for both Argentina and Brazil.

Lionel Scaloni and Tite, the coaches, wanted nothing to do with a match of this caliber so few weeks before the start of the World Cup.

#Institucional Press release

Resolution of the match Brazil - Argentina

📝 https://t.co/GlIn5BBS3z pic.twitter.com/WYgqG5u0kw

– AFA (@afa) August 16, 2022

Days ago, the Argentine said that the lack of definition was "disrupting the schemes" of his team.

“It is a total uncertainty.

We are not knowing if we are going to play.

This situation is not ideal and it is not our fault, it is the one who should make the decision.

We have to wait and see what happens with that game.

The situation of the match with Brazil seems unusual to me”, he complained.

The CBF, for its part, had also requested the definitive suspension, arguing that the duel "could be detrimental to the preparation of the team for the World Cup and bring risks of injury, suspension and a boycott of the Argentines to the meeting."

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