Four South African soccer players in the women’s league will not join the rest of the team in a friendly match against Denmark because they were not allowed to enter the EU country.
The international women’s soccer profiles could not enter Denmark because they did not meet visa requirements and residency permit conditions, which typically occurs due to delays in processing or additional paperwork, Schengen News reports.
As a result, the four professional soccer players will join Banyana Banyana elsewhere – in Coventry, UK, on October 26, 2024, as SAFA announced.
Foreign Athletes Often Face Issues Due to Visa Requirements
Cases of foreign athletes not making it to important events in their career are quite common, especially for athletes from Africa, as nearly all countries there need visas to enter the Schengen Area.
In July, the Nigerian national team encountered issues with Schengen visas at the Olympics, which was held in Paris, France – a Schengen member state.
Several athletes faced visa issues ahead of Olympics preparations, and they had to fly from distant countries like the US and Russia to collect their visas in Nigeria and then travel to France for the competition. This caused discontent and anger among participants, who argued that these were matters that should have been taken care of months ago.
EU Issued Over 190,000 Schengen Visas to South Africans in 2023
According to statistics published by SchengenVisaInfo, South Africans filed a total of 204,221 applications for Schengen visas in 2023. Out of these, 192,888 were approved, indicating that 94.4 per cent received a positive response.
South Africa was one of the countries with the highest approval rates in the African continent. After Sao Tome and Principe, applicants from South Africa were most likely to obtain a Schengen visa in 2023.
Their visa rejection rates were particularly low – 3.50 per cent of visa applications to Sao Tome were rejected compared to 4.80 per cent of requests filed by South African nationals. France and Italy are the two most favourite destinations for South African applicants, filing 39,862 and 33,385 visa applications, respectively, while Germany ranks third with 27,733 applications.
Source: https://schengen.news/4-south-african-professional-soccer-players-miss-match-in-denmark-due-to-visa-issues/
