KEIR RADNEDGE REPORTING —- A year of indecision has been ended with agreement by FIFA and the football federations of Argentina and Brazil not to replay their controversial, abandoned World Cup qualifying tie.

Chaos ensued last September 5 in Sao Paulo when their clash in the 2022 South American qualifying group was halted after only five minutes by local health officials.

Delegates from Anvisa, the Brazilian health controller, walked on to the pitch at the Corinthians Arena shortly after kickoff to stop the game on the grounds that three Argentinian players had broken Covid-19 security regulations.

World Cup confusion in Sao Paulo last year

Anvisa had warned earlier that four Argentina players should quarantine and not play in the match. These included three who started the match – Tottenham’s Cristian Romero and Giovani Lo Celso plus the Aston Villa goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez.

All had insisted on flying to the match, breaching an agreement by all Premier League clubs that no players should be released for qualifiers in red list countries.

Under Brazilian rules visitors who have been in the UK in the 14 days before entering the country should have quarantined for 14 days on arrival.

The Premier League players not only ignored the rules but, according to Anvisa, endorsed false information on their immigration forms.

No change

In the end the issue did not affect the group which ended with Brazil clear winners and Argentina runners-up, followed at some distance by Uruguay and Ecuador.

The settlement approved by world federation FIFA will see the Argentinian AFA organising two friendlies instead of replaying against Brazil and paying a fine of 150,000 Swiss francs for failing to comply with Brazilian regulations.

Some 25pc of the fine will go to the World Health Organization “in support of its continued efforts to combat COVID-19.”

Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni wants the two friendly matches staged in the United States, possibly in Miami and New York, between September 20 and 26 against opposition from the central and north American confederation.

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