The strict travel restrictions to the US imposed by Donald Trump have caused a major headache for Jamaican club Mount Pleasant F.A., set to play a CONCACAF Champions Cup round of 16 game this Wednesday against LA Galaxy in Los Angeles, in the main football club competition in North and Central America. Ten players have been denied a visa, and will not be allowed to play the match, so will rely on playing the second leg of the knockout round next week in Jamaica.
"We don't want to just show up for the game, we want to be able to compete but we are not being given the opportunity to be at our best", lamented Paul Christie, Mount Pleasant sporting director, in an interview with Jamaica Observer on Thursday. Despite appealing to the football governing body of the region, the Jamaican club, founded only ten years ago, will have to use trainee players, "seven or eight academy kids, including those who represented Jamaica at the Concacaf Under-20 qualifying".
This means that they will play with a serious disadvantage against LA Galaxy, one of the largest clubs in the MLS, winners of the MLS Cup five times, including in 2024. LA Galaxy also won CONCACAF Champions Cup in 2000, although the competition is won almost every time by a Mexican club.
It was not confirmed which players were denied visas for the US, but several players of the team are Haitian, in the list of countries whose citizens are partially banned from entering the US. The country did confirm they will make an exemption for the Haitian players participating in World Cup next summer, but didn't extend the exemption to the club competition, affecting ten players in the Jamaican club Mount Pleasant.