July 27 – Five Roma players were refused entry into Indonesia for a pre-season game and forced to fly home.
The team arrived on Friday for their first visit to Indonesia in the Serie A club’s history but ran into trouble at customs, Roma chief executive Italo Zanzi said.
Seydou Doumbia, Gervinho, Victor Ibarbo, Adem Ljajic and Antonio Sanabria were all stopped by immigration officials at Jakarta’s international airport and later boarded a flight back to Rome, missing what was billed as ‘AS Roma’s Indonesia Day 2015’ 24 hours later.
Zanzi told reporters as the team hotel: “It’s a real disappointment for us, given that we’ve made a substantial effort to be here. It’s not a positive thing for the players, for the club, who did everything we were asked to do, but most importantly for the Indonesian fans.”
“Despite some of the issues with local football, we organised ‘Roma Indonesia Day 2015’ and we wanted our full team to be here.”
It was not immediately clear why the players were stopped from entering the country since Indonesian authorities are yet to comment.
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