Manchester United and Liverpool are among the Premier League clubs set to lose players at the African Cup of Nations, with two big names involved in Brian Mbeumo and Mohamed Salah.
Premier League clubs such as Manchester United and Liverpool have received a boost following a new FIFA ruling allowing players to stay on for an extra week ahead of the African Cup of Nations. The tournament will begin on December 21st and will feature multiple Premier League players.
FIFA has announced that clubs do not have to release players for the tournament until December 15th. The deadline is one week later than originally thought.
This means players, including Mohamed Salah, will be able to take part in Premier League matches over the weekend of December 13-14. “He will leave on December 15,” Arne Slott confirmed on Tuesday morning.
Kopp added: “Our approach in the past has been to communicate between three parties: player, club and country. That’s nothing new. But FIFA has said December 15 is the last day a player has to be released.”
It remains to be seen whether Manchester United’s Brian Mbeumo, Amad and Nousair Mazraoui will be available for the game against Bournemouth on December 15th by the deadline.
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Liverpool and United aren’t the only ones benefiting. The Premier League team most affected by the tournament is newly promoted Sunderland. The Black Cats are expected to field up to seven players. All of them could be available for the Wear Tyne derby against Newcastle United on December 14th.
There are three teams that will be completely unaffected by this competition: Arsenal, Chelsea and Leeds United. None of the players on this trio of teams will be representing their country in the tournament.
Speaking ahead of last week’s Premier League game against Everton, United manager Ruben Amorim said the club was working to keep players at the club for as long as possible.
“We have rules as to when players have to be released, so we’ll see,” he said. “We’re doing our job to keep the players a little longer, but it’s not in our hands alone. We have to respect that, but we’re going to do everything we can to protect the club, protect the players and protect the national team.”
He also took a positive view of the absence of players from the tournament.
“This is a situation that we already knew about, but it’s an opportunity for other players,” he said. “We also have an under-21 team and we need to get the message out in the meantime, so we’ll see.
“But, of course, they (Amad, Mazraoui, Mbeumo) are very important for our team and we don’t have a long squad, so it’s not ideal. But our academy is for this moment and we are ready.”
The tournament will begin on December 21st, with hosts Morocco facing off against Comoros. The finals are scheduled to be held on January 18th.
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