Viborg without two players for West Ham United clash over Brexit issues
Danish Super League side Viborg will be without two key players when they head to West Ham for the first leg of Europa Conference League playoff.
The club announced on Wednesday (17 August) that Said, who scored in the previous round of qualifying, and Alassana Jatta are both not travelling to London for the clash due to issues sorting out visas for the duo.
Both players are classed as non-EU citizens and therefore require different visas to that of those from within the EU and the limited time Viborg have had to get everything sorted having only found out their opponents on 2 August.
“We are extremely sorry that we have not been able to get visas for the two players,” the club statement read. “We have tried everything, and have been in close contact with DBU, UEFA, the two embassies and another foreign club which has been in a similar situation.
“But unfortunately, this has proved to be impossible, as there is a processing time of several weeks and The match was only finally decided a week ago.”
Poor
West Ham were already strong favourites to win but this news has swung the pendulum massively in their favour and it is a shame for the Danes that they won’t have two of their key players at the London Stadium.
Maybe the Irons could have done more to help with the visa problems but ultimately, this is a fault of the UK government and there has to be some kind of reassessment of the rules for football clubs.
There is no way these teams can predict whether they will need a visa for the UK several months in advance and the fast-paced nature of this season, in particular, means things are even harder.
It might not have an impact on the result but Said and Jatta would have loved to play at such a vast stadium in front of a huge crowd on a big European night but lousy rules have denied them the chance.