Report: Brazilian Players Could Miss Premier League Games Due to FIFA Ruling

A small handful of Brazil internationals may miss the upcoming round of Premier League fixtures.

ESPN FC's Rob Dawson reported the Brazilian soccer federation (CBF) triggered a FIFA rule that prohibits players from competing at the club level for five days after the end of an international break. The rule can be applied when the players in question weren't released by their clubs to appear for their national teams.

Manchester City (Ederson and Gabriel Jesus) and Liverpool (Roberto Firmino, Fabinho and Alisson) could be without key stars as a result.

Dawson reported officials from the Premier League are still discussing the matter with the CBF and FIFA, so it appears the players in question may have a chance of competing in Matchday 4.

Ahead of the international break, the Premier League announced its member clubs "reluctantly but unanimously" chose not to release the players who were due to join countries on the United Kingdom's COVID-19 travel red list. Brazil was among the countries the UK government cautioned against traveling to unless essential.

Because of the designation, Brazilian players would have faced a 10-day quarantine upon returning to England.

FIFA president Gianni Infantino asked UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson to relax the COVID-19 restrictions for soccer players, a request that has been ignored so far.

BBC Sport's Simon Stone reported FIFA "will keep pushing this given the likelihood of the same situation arising again around international fixtures in October and November."

Brazil had three 2022 World Cup qualifiers on the schedule during the September international break.

The Selecao's fixture Sunday against Argentina was stopped abruptly when Brazilian health officials alleged four England-based members of Argentina's national team (Emiliano Buendia, Giovani Lo Celso, Emiliano Martinez and Cristian Romero) failed to properly disclose they had been in the UK in the last 14 days before arriving in Brazil.