LONDON: World football's main governing body, FIFA has blocked five Premier League clubs from selecting Brazilian players for the matches this weekend at the request of the country's football association.

FIFA has applied Article 5 to enforce the restriction period of September 10-14, as per Sky Sports.

This decision means those players will miss the weekend's round of Premier League fixtures and also Tuesday's Champions League matches.

The Brazilian players who were not released for the World Cup qualifiers against Argentina and Peru are Raphinha of Leeds, Manchester United's Fred, Thiago Silva at Chelsea, Manchester City's Ederson and Gabriel Jesus, as well as Alisson, Roberto Firmino and Fabinho at Liverpool.

The five-day rule is designed to protect international teams from unnecessary, club influenced withdrawals.

Players who are not released for international duty can, in accordance with FIFA, be banned from featuring for their clubs for a five-day period following the conclusion of international fixtures.

In this instance, that period covers September 10-14.

In August, Premier League clubs had unanimously decided not to release players for international matches which were to be played in red-list countries.

The clubs' decision was then strongly supported by the Premier League and applied to nearly 60 players from 19 Premier League clubs who were due to travel to 26 red-list countries in the September international window.

Edited - SportsAction / Inputs - Agency