Don't know what will happen but only ones punished are players and clubs, admits Jurgen Klopp

Alisson and Fabinho, plus Roberto Firmino who is out with an injury, are among the eight Brazilian players who are unavailable for the upcoming Premier League fixtures. It also means that Manchester City pair Gabriel Jesus and Ederson would be ruled out of their match against Leicester while Manchester United will be without Fred in their match against Newcastle on Saturday. Chelsea are set to miss the services of Thiago Silva for their matches against Aston Villa and Zenit.

This comes after FIFA reportedly made an executive decision to rule the players ineligible after the Brazilian football association asked the government body to impose a five-day rule on several clubs Premier League clubs after they refused to let their players report for the World Cup qualifers. FIFA was unable to convince the UK government to grant exceptions from the Covid-19 protocols for several athletes which meant that players would have to quarantine for 10 days after returning to England, thus missing out on games.

However, with the ruling not official yet, Jurgen Klopp admitted that he is still unsure of the availability of his players as they prepare to take on Leeds United at Elland Road but feels that clubs and players have been harshly punished.

"I can say what I know: I don’t know in the moment. We will see, there are meetings going on, we did nothing. We didn’t organise the Copa America, we are not responsible for the games they couldn’t have played. We didn’t invite players, we didn’t say when they come back there’s no exemption. We all didn’t do that. But in the end, the only who get punished are the players and the clubs – and we have nothing to do with the whole organisation around. It’s like, ‘What is happening?”, Klopp told the club’s website.’

"So I don’t know what will happen at the weekend, to be honest. In this moment, we have to see what other people decide and then we will again accept that probably, do what people tell us and try to win a football game."