The Senegalese ladies’s basketball group has scrapped plans to coach within the U.S. for the upcoming AfroBasket match within the Ivory Coast subsequent month after a number of gamers and group officers had their visas denied, Senegal’s prime minister stated.
Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko stated on Fb Thursday that the group would prepare in Senegal’s capital, Dakar, “in a sovereign and conducive setting.”
The West African nation’s federation stated in a press release that the visa functions of 5 gamers and 7 officers weren’t permitted.
“Knowledgeable of the refusal of issuing visas to a number of members of the Senegal ladies’s nationwide basketball group, I’ve instructed the Ministry of Sports activities to easily cancel the 10-day preparatory coaching initially deliberate in america of America,” Sonko stated.
The visa denials come amid a push by the Trump administration to have nations enhance vetting vacationers or face a ban on their residents visiting america. Senegal wasn’t on that listing of nations and it was not instantly clear why the visas had been denied.
The journey ban contains exemptions for the World Cup, the Olympics and any “different main sporting occasion,” although it is unclear what is taken into account a significant occasion.
The group is coached by Otis Hughley Jr., who beforehand led the Nigerian ladies’s basketball group. He was the boys’s coach at Alabama A&M earlier than resigning in March.
Senegal, which was going to coach within the U.S. from Sunday via July 3, has completed both first or second in 4 of the final 5 AfroBasket championships during the last decade and has received 11 titles in complete. The match determines Africa’s champion, which earns entry into the FIBA World Cup subsequent yr in Germany.