CL/EL/ECL 22/23

jones

West Ham are playing Viborg FF in the Qualifiers to the ECL. Two of Viborg's best attackers will miss the game in London because as non-EU citizens they've been denied visa due to new Brexit regulations.

JazzG

If they're non EU players, what does Brexit have to do with this?

jones

They're non-EU players living and playing in Denmark, apparently the rules have changed since Brexit to not allow them entry any longer (or that the process has been prolonged to the point where players become unavailable). The Brexit aspect is explicitly mentioned in the club statement at least.

Don't think there's any reason to doubt it, pretty sure I heard a similar story last year but can't recall which club it was. Also last time around we were in a CL qualifier we played Udine, a team that was like 50% non-EU players and they had no problems entering the country.

goon

I'd imagine the issue is that they didn't start the process to facilitate it early enough so are just deflecting.

JazzG

Just done a quick Google and the complaint seems to be they only found out about this fixture a week ago and they can't get a visa in time.

jones

goon wrote:
I'd imagine the issue is that they didn't start the process to facilitate it early enough so are just deflecting.

They just learned they'd play West Ham. Were they supposed to start the visa process on the off chance they might play in England?

Mirth

I’m skeptical about this too - I’m not aware of any rule changes that would impact non EU players specifically post Brexit. Things should work exactly the same as they always have and I say this as someone who needed to apply for a UK and Schengen visa in the past.

I suspect what happens for most players who routinely play in the Europa league and the CL would have been granted a multiple year visa so it’s never an issue when the draw is announced at short notice but Viborg probably haven’t had much previous experience. This is then further compounded by most gov agencies here struggling post Covid to resume normal operations in the face of the usual tourist season

jones

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/62575909

BBC and Reuters also reporting it's because of Brexit, no further detail given though. Also referring to another unnamed club who's faced the same issue in the past

JazzG

I mean Brexit has fucked up a lot of things in this country but this case they seem to be using it as a reason for the sake of it.

Mirth

It's fucked up life for a lot of EU citizens but the resulting changes for non-EU citizens have been either the same or better than 2016.

The other thing to point out is this restriction wouldn't apply to all non EU citizens either - for instance, if you were from the US, Malaysia or Namibia you wouldn't need a visa.

These are country specific restrictions that have basically always existed. Source: I dealt with this shit

Clrnc

Jones your Frankfurt better beat Spuds

Should have been us in that group ffs

QuincyAbeyie

Lewa vs Bayern and Haaland vs Dortmund.

Clrnc

Piss easy group too for Spuds. Annoying.

All the english clubs have relatively easy draw and don't need to travel far. Crap

Will be interesting to see how Celtic does in that group with their pretty football

Nuno Tavares, Alexis, Guendouzi, Kolasinac should know what to do vs the scums

Sicario

Liverpool got the hardest draw out of English clubs.

Spurs got easiest pot 1 club but hardest pot 4 club.

Sicario

Also, apart form group C (Bayern, Barca, inter) any of those teams that finish 3rd and drop into Europa League are beatable.

jones

Boring draw, complete shit teams with fuck all European pedigree but I'll take it. Semi final minimum now I think

Sadly absolutely no chance at getting tickets for Spurs, maybe for extortionate prices close to the ground but at least I'll be able to break a leg or three

[mod edit - 'yid' is an offensive term even in a footballing context to refer to Spurs fans, see the big efforts by the authorities and Spurs to get even their own fans to stop using the term]

Clrnc

Dinamo who barely qualified for the UCL undeservedly, beats Chelsea in their first match. Incredible

Claudius

You lot see that gorgeous Mbappe goal

Sicario

Haahahahahaah@chelsea

Fuck them and fuck Auba

Clrnc

Celtic Angeball absolutely outplayed European Champions Real Madrid currently.

Just incredible to watch how they play really. McGregor hits the post already and Giokoumakis missed a great chance