Premier League managers will be able to call on their red-list stars this weekend after FIFA and the associations agreed to waive their automatic five-day restriction. Not only would some of those players miss this weekend's Premier League games, they would also be prevented from playing in the Champions League in midweek. The Premier League clubs then reached an agreement to ignore FIFA's punishment, deciding that both the league and clubs would take no action against opponents if they were to play the 'banned' players. It appears as if the Premier League clubs' collective action forced FIFA's hand in bringing the South and Central American nations to the negotiating table and convincing them to withdraw their complaints. The players wanted to play, the clubs wanted to let the players go.

Source: Daily Mail September 10, 2021 22:34 UTC