As many will now know, Celtic released an unplanned statement last night as they responded to calls for their players to return from international duty.
Celtic informed supporters that the release of players for internationals falls under FIFA regulations – effectively informing us that there’s nothing extra they can do to bring them home.
This came after Odsonne Edouard had returned a positive Covid test whilst Ryan Christie has been ordered to self-isolate for 14 days (SFA). Therefore, there’s a natural concern that other Hoops players will potentially need to self isolate given many of them are travelling around Europe.
And here, we take a look at the fan anger that prompted Celtic to make their short statement last night. The club’s official tweet will be posted at the bottom:
https://twitter.com/WeeJaden/status/1313889676533682183
https://twitter.com/Paddy7_/status/1313881018361933825
Not as easy as just hauling them all back
It would be ideal if Celtic were able to have the final say on this. Undoubtedly, in the club’s best interests, the Hoops would bring them all back in a heartbeat and have them in at Lennoxtown working on a game-plan for Rangers next Saturday.
However, there are strict FIFA guidelines that demand players be released from their clubs when called upon for international duty. Annex 1 of FIFA’s Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Players (page 32), states the following:
“Clubs are obliged to release their registered players to the representative teams of the country for which the player is eligible to play on the basis of his nationality if they are called up by the association concerned. Any agreement between a player and a club to the contrary is prohibited.”
If Celtic were to demand everybody comes back, then there could very well be punishments. It’s not outside the realms of possibility that those selected for international duty have a block put on them for the Rangers game, for example.
You also have the morale element too. Do the likes of Mohamed Elyounoussi, Kristoffer Ajer, Callum McGregor etc want to be hauled back from playing a massive Euro 2020 playoff for their countries? Getting everyone to take that idea on board would be tricky regardless.
So you can see why Celtic haven’t been able to act here. It simply isn’t so basic as refusing to make their players unavailable. Hopefully, of course, there are no further issues as the break progresses.
In other news, a former Rodgers signing has been given a grim career update; posts inspirational Instagram message.
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