There was chaos in South America on Sunday evening as a World Cup qualifying match between Brazil and Argentina was abandoned after Brazilian health officials stormed the pitch.
That was due to the local authorities trying to deport four Argentine players who play for Premier League clubs after they were in breach of coronavirus protocols.
Emiliano Buendia was on the bench, Aston Villa teammate Emiliano Martinez started between the posts and Tottenham Hotspur duo Giovani Lo Celso and Cristian Romero started in a game which was shrouded in controversy.
The four were supposed to have been in quarantine upon arriving from the UK but were selected by Argentina despite having flown over to South America following the last round of Premier League matches, ending Sunday, August 29.
Top-flight clubs had already unanimously agreed to not release players to red-list countries such as Argentina during the International break, something which the four went against before they got themselves into even more trouble.
That meant Brazil were without Liverpool pair Alisson and Fabinho along with Chelsea's Thiago Silva, Manchester United's Fred, Everton star Richarlison and Manchester City striker Gabriel Jesus.
Government rules in Brazil state that any person entering the country having recently been in the UK must observe a period of 14 days' isolation.
However, all of them allegedly did not declare they had been in England and were subsequently placed under investigation by the local authorities.
Following their victory over Venezuela, the Argentinian FA believed they did not need to make the Brazilian authorities aware as they had already told CONMEBOL that the four players were part of their Covid-secure bubble.
Brazil's authorities had not sanctioned their visit and officials visited Argentina's team hotel in Sao Paolo on Sunday in the hours leading up to game in attempt to prevent the match from going ahead.
ESPN Brasil claim that the Federal Government, FIFA and CONMEBOL - the South American football governing body - struck an agreement so that all four players would be allowed to play.
But members of the Brazilian health authority, Anvisa, stormed the field just minutes in, accompanied by police officers to demand the match be stopped until the four players were removed from the pitch and reportedly detained.
"These players arrived in Brazil on a flight from Caracas," Anvisa said in a statement. "The flight landed in Guarulhos [Sao Paulo].
"They declared that they had not been in any of the four countries which are restricted for the past 14 days. Anvisa was warned about supposedly false information given by these players.
"After that, Anvisa sent a notification to CIEVS [in charge of Sao Paolo's Covid-19 restrictions]. We have to clarify that false information given to Brazilian authorities might be infractions of health laws of the country and might be an infraction of our criminal law."
Brazil and Argentina, who sit first and second respectively in South America'a qualifying table, each have matches on Thursday.
CONMBEOL have confirmed that FIFA will decide when the match will be replayed.
