UK work visa concerns prevent footballer move to Manchester United
December 21 2009 by Liam Clifford
Transfer of promising young Serb scuppered because of UK work visa rules.
It has emerged that the transfer of Partizan Belgrade player
Adem Ljajic, which had appeared to have been finalised back in January 2009, has
been scrapped due to UK work visa concerns for the young Serb.
In January,
Ljajic posed in a Manchester United shirt with Alex Ferguson in a photoshoot
that the sports press presumed indicated that the transfer was
complete.
In reality, the eagerly awaited transfer was subject to the
player continuing to play in his home country in order to gain enough work
experience to enable him to work in the UK legally.
Ferguson was
reportedly keen to get the paperwork done for Ljajic’s move to the UK by last
month, but the 18-year-old player has been left without the UK visa after
all.
Mike Phelan, Manchester United’s Assistant Manager told the press,
“we made a tentative approach to getting a work permit and the word we got back
from the Home Office was we couldn't get that through in time to get Adem signed
in January.”
He was keen to point out that money was not an issue when it
came to the crunch, explaining, “sometimes you cannot fight these things.
Sometimes you can get UK work visas, other times you can't. Adem fell into the
latter category, which is why we made the decision."
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