Why did you withdraw the “exceptional champion” from the World Cup clubs?

The Auckland City team paid the price for the strict restrictions imposed by New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to fight the emerging corona virus, after the city to which the club belongs registered infections with the new strain of Covid -19 recently discovered in Britain, earlier this year.

On Friday, FIFA announced Auckland City’s withdrawal from the 2020 FIFA Club World Cup, which will be held in Qatar from 1 to 11 next February.

According to the FIFA statement, Auckland City has reported that due to the Corona pandemic and the quarantine measures required by the New Zealand authorities, it will not be able to participate in the Club World Cup because FIFA cannot reach a solution with the New Zealand authorities that They have made requests related to isolation and quarantine that go beyond the jurisdiction of FIFA. .

Auckland City qualified for the current Club World Cup and for the tenth time in its history without winning the Oceania Champions League, which was canceled by Corona, to grant its continental federation the qualifying card according to mathematical procedures that favored its preference for the championship that it was cancelled.

New Zealand, which was at the forefront of the world’s most successful countries in fighting the “Covid-19” epidemic, according to Bloomberg, imposes heavy restrictions on precautionary measures entering and leaving the country, and has imposed tougher restrictions on virus outbreaks, to which the capital Auckland has been exposed twice and hit. Last August, at the third level, which prohibits the entry and exit of homes except out of extreme necessity.

The epicenter of the epidemic emerged in Auckland in August, forcing authorities to close down the city of 1.5 million people for about three weeks until early September.

Last October, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced the lifting of restrictions that had been imposed in Auckland to face a second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, and said that her country had already overcome the virus “again. “.

But with restrictions on Auckland easing, New Zealand’s strict entry and travel procedures remained the same, prompting New Zealand to apologize for a friendly match with England, which was scheduled for last November and along with the news of the emergence of a new strain of the Corona virus in Europe.

Commenting on the cancellation of the match, Andrew Bragnell, CEO of the New Zealand Football Association, told Reuters: “This was not an easy decision, but in light of current conditions, and with travel and quarantine restrictions, We do not guarantee the presence of a team at Wembley Stadium on this specific day. “

New Zealand registered zero cases of the emerging virus on December 6, prompting it to proceed to relax measures until a series of large music festivals and fireworks displays were allowed to take place across the country to celebrate the arrival of the new year.

But last January 3, New Zealand health authorities announced the registration of the first cases of the new strain of Coronavirus (Covid-19) recently discovered in Britain after 19 cases were recorded on January 2, so that the number of infected people on January 9 amounted to 31 cases, which is the highest number of infections. In the country since last April, 14 cases were registered yesterday, raising the total since January 1 to 84 injured.

It seems that new developments with the impossibility of implementing a special travel bubble between New Zealand and Qatar are the main reason for not participating in Auckland City and announcing their withdrawal from their 10th FIFA Club World Cup.

According to the FIFA statement, the next version of the FIFA Club World Cup will be held with only 6 teams, after announcing that the Qatari representative of the organizing league and the competitor from Auckland have qualified directly for the second round.

And they qualified for the championship Al-Ahly, Bayern Munich, Al-Duhail, Qatar, Ulsan Hyundai, the Korean, and Tigris Unal, Mexico, awaiting the South American champion, whose champion will be decided on the 30th of this month.

It is worth noting that the tournament draw will take place in Zurich, Switzerland on January 19.