Before joining their national teams at the Africa Cup of Nations, FIFA announced on Wednesday that stars like Mohamed Salah, Bryan Mbeumo, and Achraf Hakimi will be able to play for their clubs for an additional week until December 15.
FIFA conducted the decision after “fruitful consultations led by FIFA with key stakeholders and thanks to the spirit of solidarity shown by CAF to lessen the impact on various parties,” according to a statement from FIFA, which made reference to the Confederation of African Football, the organization’s organizers.
FIFA further stated that it was also decided to encourage AFCON members and clubs releasing players to engage in fair bilateral discussions in order to come up with appropriate individual solutions.
Before FIFA’s ruling, players had to show up for international duty by December 8, which meant English Premier League clubs could have been without crucial players for up to seven or even eight league games during a particularly busy time of the season.
The competition is awkward for Sunderland’s high-flying team and Wolverhampton Wanderers, who could only be without seven and five players, respectively.
Liverpool will miss out on Salah from Egypt, while Manchester City will miss out on Rayan Ait-Nouri and Omar Marmoush from Algeria, while Mbeumo, Amad Diallo, and Noussair Mazraoui from Morocco will be missing.
League rivals Arsenal, Chelsea, and Leeds will remain unaffected on the other hand.
Hakimi, the reigning African player of the year, will be lost to French and European champions PSG, but other European giants like Real Madrid, Barcelona, AC Milan, and Juventus will not.
Nicolas Jackson, a loan signing from Chelsea from Bayern Munich, will play in the tournament, but he won’t miss many Bundesliga games because the league will be taking a winter break from December 22 through January 8.
The tournament favorites include Senegal, Morocco, Egypt, Algeria, and Morocco.
Source: Channels TV
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