Watford’s Emmanuel Dennis has reportedly been blocked from participating in AFCON by his club, should Liverpool do the same with Mo Salah, Sadio Mane and Naby Keita?
The reward for the Nigerian’s brilliant performances for Claudio Ranieri’s side is having his participation in Africa’s premier footballing competition blocked, at a period where many are questioning the disrespect being shown toward the competition.
However; if a football club is paying someone tens or hundreds of thousands of pounds, per week, are they not within their rights to block them leaving for a month?
There is no doubting that all African players would love to participate in the competition and would happily forgo a month of domestic football to do so but in any other walk of life, it’s unlikely they would be able to.
Maybe this should be the call of the club’s as they are employing the players and certainly paying them enough to expect their attendance at work.
Seeing how much it would mean to the player and wanting to keep some of the biggest stars on side, it’s likely that most clubs would still allow their players to leave and it’s unlikely Jurgen Klopp would stop any of his players from taking part.
Nevertheless; it shouldn’t be frowned upon for a club to have to do this and there should either be a break in play for all teams with players participating, or the competition shouldn’t be played in the middle of a season.
It appears that the main reason for suspected disrespect of the competition is because of when it is being held, if this was the Euros, Copa America or any other international tournament taking part in the middle of the season – it would have the same reaction.
Football clubs have the right to make the call either way, as would happen with anyone in any job, but they should also show compassion to allow these African stars to take part in the prestigious tournament.
Liverpool shouldn’t, nor wouldn’t, block Salah, Mane and Keita from participating but Watford shouldn’t be shamed for making a call that is only in the best interest of their club.
#Ep28 of The Red Nets Podcast (Special Edition): The Koppies Awards…