By Andrew Warshaw
January 9- A top-flight Dutch club is at the centre of a diplomatic storm after going ahead with a winter-break warm weather trip to the United Arab Emirates despite an Israeli defender on its books being refused permission to enter the country.
High-flying Vitesse Arnhem are in Abu Dhabi for friendlies with two Bundesliga clubs, Wolsfburg and Hamburg, but were told one day before departure that defender Dan Mori would not be allowed entry since the UAE did not recognise Israel.
Vitesse spokeswoman Esther Bal says the club had previously been assured by phone that there would be no restrictions against Mori in his capacity as a sportsman.
Dutch politicians have nevertheless criticized the team for travelling to the UAE without him.
Geert Wilders, leader of the rightist Party for Freedom, called the team “cowardly” on his Twitter account.
“Vitesse should not have gone to UAE as a protest against the refusal of Mori,” said Wilders.
And finance minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem added: “Vitesse should have said in principle that ‘this is our team and you must accept all of us or we will not travel’. “
However, Bal told CNN: “We’re a football club. We want to stay away from politics,” adding that Mori himself encouraged Vitesse to go ahead without him “putting the team’s interests first.”
According to Bal, Vitesse was unable to pull out of the trip as that would have affected the other teams involved. “We were under pressure. We had obligations with the teams we’re playing.”
This is not the first time the UAE have barred Israeli athletes. Last year, English Premier League Swansea City reportedly were told than an Israeli player, Itay Shechter, could not go to Dubai for training while in 2009, Shahar Peer was denied entry for the Dubai Tennis Championship.
Vitesse Arnhem says it will be taking up the latest case with FIFA. “We are upset that we have become part of a political struggle and afterward we will seek to take this matter up with FIFA,” Bal said in a Dutch television interview.
“Both the United Arab Emirates and Israel are members of FIFA and in this sense it is strange that a footballer should be shut out of a training camp.”
“We are upset that what was supposed to be a good opportunity to prepare for the second half of the season is now overshadowed by this incident.
“We had verbal permission that Dan Mori would be allowed to travel with the team to Abu Dhabi but we were then told the day before that he could not. It came as a surprise to us.
“We are a football team and not a political party. We made commitments to play matches …and we do not want to let them down.
“It is also part of our planning for the resumption of the season and the players themselves also want to travel to keep up the team building process.”