South American World Cup Qualifiers AXED this month due to coronavirus restrictions affecting players’ travel

THIS month’s South American World Cup Qualifiers have been postponed due to coronavirus travel restrictions.

The pandemic has created a logistical nightmare in terms of flying players in and out of different countries.

On Saturday, the South American football confederation, Conmebol, confirmed the decision to axe the fixtures.

A statement read: “The CONMEBOL Council has decided to suspend the double-header of Qatar 2022 qualifiers scheduled for March.

“The decision is due to the impossibility of having all the South American players in a timely manner.

“Fifa will work on the rescheduling of the date, in coordination with CONMEBOL and the member associations. Soon, the different options for holding the matches will be studied.”

A raft of Premier League players would have been caught up in the UK Government’s ten-day hotel quarantine for ‘red list’ countries judged to be particularly suffering from coronavirus.

In total, 33 countries were cited with no exemption for sports stars and a £10,000 fine if caught disobeying the rules.

More to follow