Nigerian, Gambian players to miss Europa tie with West Ham ‘because of Brexit’

Nigeria winger Ibrahim Said and Gambia Alassana Jatta have been unable to secure visas to play for Viborg against West Ham United in Thursday’s Europa Conference League game due to post-Brexit rules, the Danish club has said.

Said, a 20-year-old former youth international, and the 6ft 4in forward Jatta from Gambia will miss the play-off match of the third-tier European competition.

Viborg said the visas take several weeks for the Home Office to process and that the play-off fixture was only confirmed last week.

A club statement said that the pair would miss the game “due to the English entry rules for non-EU citizens after Brexit”.

Jesper Fredberg, Viborg’s sports director, said: “We are extremely sorry that we have not been able to get visas for the two players.

“We have tried everything, and have been in close contact with Danish FA, Uefa, the two embassies and another foreign club which has been in a similar situation, but unfortunately this has proven to be impossible, as there is a processing time of several weeks and the match was only finally decided a week ago.

“It is very unfortunate purely sportingly, as both players would have had a role in the match, but even more unfortunate from a human perspective that the two miss out on a great experience.”

Viborg, who are playing in European competition for the first time in 22 years, got through to the play-off round on August 9.

There have been issues with players struggling to obtain visas pre-Brexit too. In 2015, Daniel Amartey failed to secure a visa to play for Copenhagen against the Welsh side Newtown in the Europa League — the Ghana international signed for Leicester City the following year.