Lionel Messi has told the Brazilian health officials that the situation is an ’embarrassment’ after the World Cup qualifier between Argentina and Brazil was suspended on Sunday night.
Police and Brazilian health officials stormed the pitch just minutes into the highly-anticipated encounter, due to an apparent Covid-19 protocol breach involving the four Premier League players for Argentina.
It’s been reported that Spurs duo Cristian Romero and Giovani Lo Celso, as well as Aston Villa pair Emi Martinez and Emi Buendia, failed to disclose that they’re from the UK upon entering Brazil.
Roy Nemer, who has been brilliantly covering the developing situation with regular updates, has shared what Lionel Messi said to the officials in an intense conversation when they stormed the pitch.
Nemer reports that Messi burst out with ‘It’s an embarrassment’ before pointing out that the Argentina national team have been in Brazil for three days and ‘nothing happened’.
A clip of frustrated Messi expressing his displeasure to the officials has also emerged:
Argentina boss Lionel Scaloni claims that one ‘notified’ them of the issue:
CONMEBOL, the South American football confederation, have now officially announced that the tie has been suspended on Twitter.
Messi seems frustrated with not just the issue itself, but the manner in which the Brazilian authorities have looked to handle it, forcibly leading the mammoth qualifier to be suspended.
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