By Nodley Wright, Staff ReporterARNETT GARDENS Football Club could be forced to miss the Miami Cup after the United States Embassy declined to interview 20 persons in the 34-member touring party which had planned to leave the island on Wednesday.
The National Premier League (NPL) defending champions are one of three teams outside of the US invited to take part in the competition and were scheduled to play their first game this evening.
According to Patrick Roberts, club president, he has been attempting since Monday to get appointments for the 20 without success.
"We were told by the organiser, Georges Roumain, president of the Miami Athletic Club, that I should go to the embassy on Monday with all the passports and take them to the chief of the non-immigrant visa department as applications for appointments were already made," Roberts said.
This, he did but was told the group was too big for them to be accommodated "at this time of the year".
"I am saying that I am taking in a delegation of 20 and of that number only about six players but the thing is that three quarters of that number have already been to the United States on several occasions," Roberts said.
When The Gleaner contacted Roumain, he insisted the US Embassy was contacted and even furnished with a copy of the letter dated October 31.
A part of the letter read: The Miami Cup 2001 Soccer Tournament will be held in the city of Miami on November 30th through December 2nd of this year. We have invited teams from different countries to do exhibition games on these dates, including a professional team from Kingston, Jamaica called Arnett Gardens Club.
We wish to respectfully request you provide visas for travel to the United States for this team made up of 25 persons. They will need to be in the US November 28.
Roumain said he did not understand why it was so difficult for the Jamaicans when the players of Rauldao de la Gonave of Haiti and Atletico Junior of Colombia, the other teams invited, had their visas and were in the US.
Acting public affairs officer of the US Embassy in Kingston, Michael Koplovsky said the interview denial was a matter of the appointments not being made in a timely fashion.
"It is an issue of appointment. Had the team given more than a couple of days notice of their intention to travel perhaps the embassy could have accommodated them. Right now over 5,000 Jamaicans are waiting for a visa interview. These people applied weeks ago through the normal system," Koplovsky said.
He also discounted Roumain's letter.
"My understanding is that the first the consulate heard of this was November 23. We received an application from the football players here in Jamaica. If they had applied at the time you say then they probably would have been granted their interviews."
