{"id":87588,"date":"2026-06-14T04:04:19","date_gmt":"2026-06-14T04:04:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/87588\/"},"modified":"2026-06-14T04:04:19","modified_gmt":"2026-06-14T04:04:19","slug":"ghana-slams-canadas-decision-to-deny-world-cup-visa-for-thomas-partey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/87588\/","title":{"rendered":"Ghana slams Canada’s decision to deny World Cup visa for Thomas Partey"},"content":{"rendered":"

ACCRA, Ghana (AP) \u2014 Ghana\u2019s government has criticized Canada\u2019s \u201cextremely unfair\u201d decision to deny midfielder Thomas Partey a visa for his team\u2019s World Cup<\/a> opener while he awaits trial on rape charges, and it threatened legal action in a bid to overturn the refusal.<\/p>\n

The 32-year-old Partey, who is scheduled to stand trial in London later this year, returned to Ghana\u2019s base camp in Rhode Island after Canada denied his visa application to enter the country for Wednesday\u2019s match against Panama in Toronto.<\/p>\n

Ghana\u2019s Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Saturday issued a statement<\/a> criticizing what it called \u201cthe high-handed and extremely unfair decision by Canada to refuse a temporary residence application\u201d for Partey.<\/p>\n

Partey faces allegations from several women dating to his time with English club Arsenal from 2020-25. Partey, who played in Spain for Villarreal this past season, has pleaded not guilty.<\/p>\n

Ghana\u2019s government said it \u201creaffirms the fundamental legal principle of the presumption of innocence, a cornerstone of justice and due process in democratic societies.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile respecting Canada\u2019s sovereign right to enforce its immigration laws, Ghana considers that reliance on unproven charges in the absence of a judicial determination raises fundamental questions of fairness and proportionality,\u201d the statement read. \u201cAccordingly, Ghana is pursuing active diplomatic engagements with the relevant Canadian authorities on this matter.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ghana coach Carlos Queiroz had also cited a presumption of innocence<\/a> for Partey when he included the player in his World Cup squad.<\/p>\n

Ghana\u2019s government said it had sent an \u201cofficial note of protest\u201d to Canada asking for the decision to be reviewed, and that it was \u201cdetermined to explore and pursue all available diplomatic, legal and administrative remedies under Canadian and international law, including, where appropriate, judicial review before the Federal Court of Canada, to ensure full and fair consideration of all relevant legal and factual issues in accordance with due process.\u201d<\/p>\n

The statement added that the Ministry has been holding talks with Canadian officials and that Ghana \u201cremains committed to constructive engagements\u201d with their counterparts in pursuit of \u201can amicable resolution in a timely manner.\u201d<\/p>\n

Partey\u2019s lawyer said in March that the player intends to plead not guilty<\/a> to two new charges of rape after a woman alleged Partey twice raped her on the same day in December 2020. He had separately been awaiting trial on five counts of rape related to two other women and one count of sexual assault involving another woman, and the new allegations arose after the first set of charges were publicized<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Partey will be able to play June 23 when Ghana faces England in Massachusetts. Ghana concludes group play June 27 against Croatia in Philadelphia.<\/p>\n

\u201cMay the beautiful game of football continue to live up to its reputation of uniting nations, forging lasting bonds of friendship, playing by the rules, and promoting fair play both on and off the field,\u201d Ghana\u2019s government said in its statement.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP World Cup: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/fifa-world-cup<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ACCRA, Ghana (AP) \u2014 Ghana\u2019s government has criticized Canada\u2019s \u201cextremely unfair\u201d decision to deny midfielder Thomas Partey a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":87589,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[17,591,33606,21892,47,1312,592,20291,33604,5417,3772,20289,1343,49,33603,33605,218],"class_list":["post-87588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-canada","tag-canada-government","tag-carlos-queiroz","tag-central-america","tag-crime","tag-fifa-world-cup","tag-general-news","tag-ghana","tag-ghana-national-soccer-team","tag-indictments","tag-latin-america","tag-panama","tag-sexual-assault","tag-sports","tag-thomas","tag-trials","tag-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87588","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87588"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87588\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}