Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp has taken aim at the “solutions” being offered up for international footballers preparing to leave for countries still on Britain’s travel red list.
Among those are Brazilian duo Alisson and Fabinho, Greek defender Kostas Tsimikas and Senegalese forward Sadio Mane.
As things stand, those heading off on World Cup qualification duty will have to quarantine once returning to the UK, ruling out them of contention for domestic fixtures.
What has been said?
Klopp feels the situation and regulations in place need to be reassessed, telling reporters ahead of the crunch Premier League clash against Manchester City: “There’s no final decision as far as I know. I heard probably the same things you heard.
“It’s 10 days quarantine, allowed to play the games, allowed to go to work, not allowed to live at home but don’t have to live in a hotel chosen by the authorities - you can choose the hotel yourself, but food has to be delivered in front of your room door. You are not allowed to have any visitors.
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“If that’s the solution, I don’t know where it’s coming from. We should not forget, in our case we talk about the Brazilian players, Tsimikas and Mane. That would mean for the players that they go for 10-12 days with their national teams, then they go another 10 days away from their families into quarantine.
"That’s 22 days, and then two weeks later there’s the next international break.
“That doesn’t sound to me like a real solution. Brazil and Georgia and other countries are on the red-list for England, but for example they are not for France, Germany or Spain. The players there can come back and play immediately. Those countries can send their players, they can come back and have the normal life.
“The players are constantly in bubbles. They are here in a bubble, they are on international duty in a bubble and I don’t know exactly why that is now different to what it was.
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“What I really don’t like about it is that I don’t think it is properly thought through. It feels a little bit like somebody in the Government opens the door in an important office and says ‘by the way, we still have to sort the footballers’, and someone says ‘why what is wrong with them?’.
“They say ‘they are playing in red-list and they don’t like the 10-day quarantine hotel’, so they just say ‘let them go in another hotel then’.
“No. no, come on boys! We take people out of normal life for three weeks for no real reason. We take care of our players. They are here, they live with their families, they don’t do anything else. They come to training and go home. Now we have to put them in a hotel and deliver their food? It’s just not right.
“I look at the situation with all seriousness, what do we do? We just move the responsibility to the players; can you do that, do you want that? If you don’t, then don’t go to your national team. It’s not right.
“I don’t expect the Government to be 100 per cent concerned about the Premier League situation, about the need of specific players, but the Premier League has to fight for our players. That’s not the situation now.
“If the situation in Brazil is that bad, we have to react, but why does France, Germany, Italy, Spain think it’s not that bad? I don’t know. Why can their players go back and play on and have the life they had before, yet here they have to go for 10 days in a hotel with food deliveries? I just think it’s not OK that we constantly move the responsibility to the players. It’s really not OK.”
Why will Liverpool be impacted?
Liverpool prevented those players due to head to red-listed countries from leaving Merseyside for international duty during the last break in September. That stance has now been relaxed, but the same restrictions remain in place.
Alisson and Fabinho will need to quarantine once the latest round of World Cup qualifying action is over as Brazil, on the red list, are preparing to face Venezuela and Colombia.
Georgia is also red-listed – with Tsimikas and Greece set to face them on October 9 – as is Namibia, where Mane is due to form part of Senegal’s plans for a qualification second round double-header.
After facing reigning champions City on Sunday, Liverpool will next be in action when travelling to Watford on October 16.