Seniors in Grenada for World Cup qualifier
Dos Santos passport held for five hours
By Steve Ninvalle in Grenada
Stabroek News
February 28, 2004
The senior national football team received a less than grand reception on arriving in Grenada yesterday morning
The Guyanese were put on the back foot when no official of the Grenada Football Association turned up at the airport to receive them and the passport of Technical Director Neider Dos Santos was detained by immigration authorities.
Dos Santos, a Brazilian, was allowed to enter the island minus his passport because immigration officials declared that he was not in possession of a visa and was not a Caricom national.
The other members of the touring party entered the island without a hitch but a livid Dos Santos claimed that something was sinister. The passport was returned to the technical director more than five hours later.
"I have never seen such a thing in my life," Dos Santos said shortly after arriving at the Point Salines International Airport. "How can I come into a country without a passport? I am angry, very angry," the technical director yelled.
According to Dos Santos he was issued with a letter which should have cleared the way for him to enter the country without the visa. "The immigration took everything. My passport, the letter, everything."
Immigration officials on the island claimed that it was only procedure and that the passport would have been returned to the technical director during the course of the day.
General Secretary of the Grenada FA Victor Daniels labelled the entire issue a storm in a tea cup. Daniels said he had lengthy discussions with Guyana Football Federation secretary George Rutherford about the issue of Dos Santos and him travelling without a visa.
"Mr. Rutherford told me that he [Dos Santos] had the same problem when he came here to view the game between us and Barbados. So our national association was asked to assist your technical director. This morning he didn't have the requirements needed to have the visa. I intervened and made a request for a waiver of the visa which will be done during the course of the day. To facilitate his entry into the country the authorities kept his passport," Daniels explained.
Daniels claimed that there was an official from his organization at the airport to meet the visitors, but said the official could not go into the immigration department.