A World Cup qualifier among Argentina and Brazil was deserted in the midst of ridiculous, confounded scenes after four Premier League players obviously abused Brazilian guidelines intended to contain a Covid episode that has killed in excess of 580,000 Brazilians.

The Aston Villa goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez and Tottenham’s Cristian Romero and Giovani Lo Celso were all on the pitch at São Paulo’s Neo Química Arena on Sunday evening when government police and authorities from Brazil’s wellbeing organization, Anvisa, took to the field to stop play after only seven minutes.The three players and Aston Villa’s Emiliano Buendía, who was in the stands, had purportedly by one way or another avoided Brazilian guidelines expressing that voyagers who have been in the UK, South Africa or India during the past 14 days are illegal from entering the country, except if they are Brazilian residents or have extremely durable residency.

In an explanation gave before start off Anvisa said it had gotten reports the four Argentina players, who had flown into Brazil from Venezuela on Friday, had given “bogus data” on their pre-flight wellbeing announcements. Anvisa approached nearby wellbeing to put the players under quick isolate and “keep them from staying in Brazilian domain”.

Notwithstanding, for reasons that stay indistinct, Martínez, Romero and Lo Celso were all on the pitch when the match against Brazil started off. Under 10 minutes after the fact there were unusual scenes, as authorities walked on to the pitch and stopped procedures.

“We are being embarrassed on the world stage. What’s going on is significantly deplorable,” the Brazilian analyst Galvão Bueno regretted as distracted looking players, including Neymar and Lionel Messi, remained on the pitch standing by to see whether the game would be restarted. A few minutes after the fact it was formally suspended.

The Argentina administrator, Lionel Scaloni, guaranteed that at no second had his group been told the game couldn’t be played.The on field commotion immediately transformed into a strategic and political tempest, as individuals from Brazil’s resistance asked why wellbeing authorities had not taken a firm line with the nation’s extreme right president Jair Bolsonaro, who has more than once ridiculed Covid regulation measures.

“Hopefully Anvisa shows a similar immovability with regards to wellbeing rules at the occasions advanced by the president, without covers and immunizations,” tweeted the previous top of the lower house, Rodrigo Maia.