Granit Xhaka has been taken out of Switzerland\u2019s squad for the rest of this international window after acknowledging that he obtained a forged Covid-19 vaccination certificate in 2022.<\/p>\n
Xhaka said the decision was \u201cnot the right course of action\u201d and described it as a \u201cmistake.\u201d He also issued an apology, but the matter has moved beyond a public statement. Before posting his message as an Instagram story, he had already been in contact with the Swiss Football Association (SFV).<\/p>\n
The issue resurfaced after Blick ran the headline last Friday, \u2018Did Xhaka buy a fake Covid certificate?\u2019 The report said the document was obtained from a doctor in Lucerne. Police searched those premises in 2023 and \u201cevidence seized.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Sunday, after the news emerged in Switzerland, Sunderland manager R\u00e9gis Le Bris declined to address it directly, saying it was not his \u201carea to speak about those problems or situations.\u201d Xhaka had played the full 90 minutes in a 5-3 defeat to Manchester City, and had previously been an Arsenal player in 2022.<\/p>\n
The prosecutor\u2019s office in Lucerne confirmed to Blick that proceedings have been opened against Xhaka and the doctor involved. \u201cThe aim,\u201d they say, \u201cis to clarify whether there has been any criminally relevant conduct in connection with the possible fraudulent procurement of a false certification and\/or forgery.\u201d Xhaka is due to be questioned in early October.<\/p>\n
The SFV said it \u201cwelcomes\u201d Xhaka addressing the matter publicly and taking responsibility, after discussions with the national team legend on Sunday night.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the same time, we jointly concluded that it is in the team\u2019s best interest to complete this training camp without him,\u201d SFV president Peter Kn\u00e4bel said. \u201cOur priority now is to calm the situation and focus entirely on the team and the upcoming challenges in the UEFA Nations League. After the conclusion of this international match window, we will reassess the situation together with Granit and discuss the next steps.\u201d<\/p>\n
The broader issue is not vaccination itself. In Switzerland, vaccination was never a legal requirement, though proof of vaccination was needed for access to certain venues or travel. The central question is the alleged procurement of false or forged official documents.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Xhaka is out of Switzerland\u2019s squad after admitting he obtained a forged Covid-19 certificate in 2022.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20072,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1303,961],"tags":[59,180],"class_list":["post-20073","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal-news","category-international","tag-featured","tag-player-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20073"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20073\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}