Chelsea to lose as many as six players to international tournaments thanks to new FIFA laws
According to Football.london, Chelsea have been handed a blow by the changes to the new FIFA international duty rules.
This will see the club lose all of its non-European players to international duty in 2022. This could potentially include key players such as Christian Pulisic and Hakim Ziyech. (h/t Football.london)
The governing body have replaced the September 2020 international match window. It was supposed to take place from August 31 to September 8 this year. Instead it will not be held from January 24 to February 1, 2022 for all continental confederations except UEFA. (h/t Football.london)
With the AFCON also included in the list, Ziyech will have to be released to take part for Morocco. Other players potentially affected by this include Willy Caballero for Argentina, Kenedy for Brazil, Ghana’s Baba Rahman, and Nigerian Victor Moses. (h/t Football.london)
Thankfully none of the above-mentioned names, apart from Ziyech, are key players at the club. It remains to be seen if any future transfers will join the list.
The Blues have been linked to a number of non-European stars in recent months. These include Said Benrahma, Kalidou Koulibaly, Andre Onana, Nicolas Tagliafico, and Jose Gimenez. (h/t Football.london)
Many of these players are expected to be important players for the team and their absence will be a big miss. Whether this line of thought will affect our pursuit of them remains to be seen.
Losing players during a season can adversely affect the performance of a team. It was observed in the case of Liverpool when they lost Sadio Mane for the 2017 AFCON.
Hopefully we will be well equipped for it when the time comes.
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Chelsea will start their 2020/21 Premier League season on September 14 away to Brighton & Hove Albion. Our first home game will see us face Liverpool five days later.