Fourteen Africans and one Afghan citizen who participated in the Homeless Soccer World Cup in Denmark have gone missing, police and organisers said Monday.
The 15 men had entry visas that expired on Monday and would be arrested and deported if found, Danish police said.
Six players — four from Liberia, one from Cameroon and one from Burundi — failed to show up for training on Thursday morning. After Saturday’s final, nine more — six from Burundi, two from Cameroon and one from Afghanistan — vanished, police said.
The six-day street tournament ended on Saturday with Scotland defeating Poland 9-3 to win the cup.
”We have never experienced it before,” said Kat Byles, spokesperson for the organisation behind the Homeless World Cup tournament. ”It is quite an horrific experience. We’re very surprised because 15 players is quite a lot.”
All 15 people were added to the police’s list of missing people but no extra efforts were launched to track them down, Copenhagen police spokesperson Allan Vallki said.
The missing players could already be outside Denmark because their visas allowed them to travel within the 15 European nations that are part of the so-called Schengen borderless travel area, said Inge Bruhn Thomsen, of the Danish Immigration Service.
Of the 500 homeless people from 48 countries that took part in the event, nearly half needed a visa to enter the Scandinavian country, she said.
Denmark’s Social Affairs Minister Eva Kjer Hansen on Monday said her office took ”the responsibility for what happened”.
”We have done all what we could and made sure that there was someone with the teams all the time,” Kjer Hansen said in a statement. ”Sadly, 15 players managed to disappear.”
Players said the tournament, which started July 29 to focus attention on homelessness, boosted their self-confidence.
”The 15 players must not be tainting the event. They have let down Denmark, the Homeless Cup and their teams,” Byles said. ”But it has been a phenomenal tournament.” — Sapa-AP