By David Williams
Rob Page’s prediction that Wales’ trip to the Russian city of Kazan to play Belarus in their World Cup qualifier would be “a nightmare” appears to becoming a reality.
As well as the withdrawl of four players through injury – including Aaron Ramsey – the Wales caretaker manager has also been denied three players because of visa problems.
The FAW have said in a statement that Ethan Ampadu, Tyler Roberts and Brandon Cooper will all miss Sunday’s game in Russia die to problems getting their visa approved in time.
The problems were flagged up last week by Page when he named his squad for the friendly in Finland on Wednesday, the clash against the Belarussians, and the home qualifier against Estonia on September 8.
The Belarus game – which will be played behind closed doors – is being held at a neutral venue as teams from the UK and the EU are unable to fly into Belarus because of sanctions against their government.
Page said Wales’ attempts to appeal against the decision to hold the game in Kazan were swiftly dismissed by UEFA, meaning they have had to prepare for a 4,000-mile round trip from Cardiff and all the subsequent paperwork.
Not only are Belarus allowed to move their match with @Cymru to a venue which is as far away from Minsk as is possible but the logistics involved also mean Wales lose three squad players because of visa issues … yes, this sounds very fair UEFA – who exactly is being punished?🤷🏻♂️
— Blogdroed 🏴 (@blogdroed) August 30, 2021
Page said at the time of his squad announcement, “UEFA could have picked any neutral venue but they’ve decided on Kazan.
“First and foremost we sympathise with the Belarusians, absolutely. But organising it from a financial and logistical point of view is a nightmare.
“We’ve got to pick a bigger squad as we all need visas – just in case there are injuries this weekend. The work that has gone into it is crazy.
“I have never seen anything like it – the amount of work, forms to fill in, it’s crazy.
“We tried to appeal but were shot down straight away. UEFA have decided that’s what we have to do and we have to get on with it.”
Visa issues allied to Covid protocols explain @Cymru problems. Some players couldn’t make venue to process visas for Russia. Even if they’d obtained visas at later date, they could not travel separately to Russia (eg on a scheduled flight) because they’d be outside @Cymru bubble
— Rob Phillips (@robphillipshere) August 30, 2021
Along with Ramsey, Joe Rodon, Neco Williams and George Thomas have also pulled out injured, with Swansea City’s Cooper one of four replacements.
But Cooper will miss the Belarus match and join Ampadu and Roberts in returning to Cardiff to prepare for the home qualifier against Estonia next week.
At Euro 2020 Wales travelled from Azerbaijan to Amsterdam, via Rome, for four matches, while England, who reached the final, played all but one of their matches at Wembley.
Chris Gunter, who became the first Welshman to win 100 caps this year, branded the format of the pan-European tournament a “joke” after they exited against Denmark in the last 16.
“If I’d said it during the Euros it would have sounded like sour grapes, so I didn’t want to say it then,” said Page, who remains in interim charge.
“But, in hindsight, it is no coincidence that teams who got further had [to do] less travelling. We put up with it and did it and gave it our best but of course it had an impact.”