Four Argentine players who were part of the national team’s trip to So Paulo to face Brazil could face serious legal action after it emerged they were under investigation by the Brazilian authorities for breaching quarantine rules.
Tottenham duo Giovani Lo Celso and Cristian Romero as well as Aston Villa pair Emiliano Martinez and Emiliano Buendia could face a fine in Brazil and be ordered to leave for failing to disclose to Brazilian health authorities that they entered the nation via England, according to UOL Esporte.
The four players are accused of failing to declare on official documents that they had been in the UK in the last two weeks when they arrived in Sao Paulo before Argentina’s World Cup qualification clash with Brazil.
Brazilian law states that anyone who has been in the UK during that time must quarantine in a hotel for 14 days, a move that would mean the four players could not return until at least September 18 before a further 10 days in a UK hotel following a visit to a red-list country.
That would rule the players out of at least three Premier League games, one round of Carabao Cup fixtures, and at least one of Spurs’ Europa Conference League fixtures.
A spokesman for Brazil’s health regulator Anvisa said: ‘These players arrived in Brazil on a flight from Caracas. The flight landed in Guarulhos (Sao Paulo). They declared that they had not been in any of the four countries which are restricted for the past 14 days. Anvisa was warned about supposedly false information given by these players.
‘After that, Anvisa sent a notification to CIEVS (institution in charge of Covid-19 restrictions in the state of Sao Paulo). We have to clarify that false information given to Brazilian authorities might be infractions of health laws of the country and might be an infraction of our criminal law.’
The maximum sentence for breaking the criminal law in question carries a maximum sentence of two years in prison, though usually carries a fine.