Sunil Chhetris chance to play for English club Queens Park Rangers fell apart when his application to get a work permit was rejected by the British authorities.
Chhetri had signed a three-year contract with the English club a few weeks back and was awaiting the work permit. His application was rejected since India was not in the top 70 in the FIFA rankings and the British Government only permits non-European Union players from a country that is ranked above 70.
The Queens Park Rangers is partly owned by Mittal Group, which has been following Chhetris career for a year now. The CEO of the club had met the Indian striker in Barcelona during the Indian teams preparatory tour recently.
ADVERTISEMENT
Indian captain Baichung Bhutia said one of the reasons for Chhetri missing out was Indias failure to play enough international matches. Sunil would surely have done well in Queens Park. He has the ability to play even in the Premiership with one or two years of experience in the championship with Queens Park.
Its sad that Indian team does not play enough international matches and that is a big setback for our ranking as well as our development. This is also a reason why today Sunil is not playing in England.
ADVERTISEMENT
Chhetri was obviously disappointed. I am disappointed because the work permit is something that I cant do anything about. Being so close and not getting it is indeed disappointing. But its not the end of the world. I will still continue working hard for my country and my club (Dempo), who have been very supportive, he said.