{"id":896666,"date":"2026-10-27T18:46:15","date_gmt":"2026-10-27T18:46:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/896666\/"},"modified":"2026-10-27T18:46:15","modified_gmt":"2026-10-27T18:46:15","slug":"granit-xhaka-switzerland-captain-and-striker-breel-embolo-permitted-to-return-to-national-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/896666\/","title":{"rendered":"Granit Xhaka: Switzerland captain and striker Breel Embolo permitted to return to national team"},"content":{"rendered":"

Granit Xhaka and Breel Embolo will both be allowed to play for Switzerland again next month following an investigation into forged Covid-19 vaccination certificates obtained by the pair.<\/p>\n

Switzerland captain Xhaka missed Nations League matches against Scotland, North Macedonia and Slovenia during the October international break after admitting to acquiring a fake certificate which allowed him to travel and compete in 2022.<\/p>\n

Striker Embolo, 29, was also dropped from the Switzerland squad in September for the same reason.<\/p>\n

The Swiss Football Association (SFV) confirmed on Tuesday that 34-year-old Sunderland midfielder Xhaka and Embolo will both be available for inclusion by manager Murat Yakin for November’s fixtures against Slovenia and Scotland.<\/p>\n

National team director Pierluigi Tami said: “We considered this from various perspectives. The specific circumstances of both cases, the concluded legal proceedings, and the sporting consequences already implemented all factored into the decision. <\/p>\n

“We are convinced that a return to the national team in November is responsible and the right thing to do.”<\/p>\n

Both Xhaka and Embolo were fined 150,000 Swiss francs (\u00a3136,000)<\/a>, suspended for two years provided no further offences are committed. <\/p>\n

Xhaka, who took responsibility for his actions, has not been stripped of the captaincy.<\/p>\n

However, the SFV said in its statement that the final decision over the captaincy remains with the team’s coach, Yakin, who will announce his squad on 5 November.<\/p>\n

Switzerland are top of Group E heading into their final two Nations League fixtures against Slovenia and Scotland on 13 and 16 November.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Granit Xhaka and Breel Embolo will both be allowed to play for Switzerland again next month following an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":896667,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[403,99],"class_list":["post-896666","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/896666","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=896666"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/896666\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/896667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=896666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=896666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=896666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}