Paris Saint Germain defender, Serge Aurier, has been refused entry to the United Kingdom as his team prepare to play Arsenal tomorrow.
The full back will now miss the Champions League match and remains in Paris. It follows the 23 year old receiving a two month suspended prison sentence for assaulting a police officer in September.
Reportedly, Aurier was initially granted a visa back in October, but it was revoked on November 16th following the conviction, a decision that the French club has labelled as showing “a lack of respect”.
PSG said in a statement, “Paris St-Germain strongly regrets the presumption of innocence has not influenced Britain’s decision,” in reference to the Ivory Coast international’s appeal of the sentence.
“On several occasions, Uefa has also transmitted its total support of Paris St-Germain to the British authorities regarding this case, in order to preserve the integrity of its competitions.”
The Home Office rebutted with their own statement, saying, “The immigration rules clearly state that non-EU nationals who have received a custodial sentence of less than 12 months within the last five years will be refused on criminality grounds.”
Arsenal face PSG at the Emirates Stadium tomorrow evening, with both teams level on points and both guaranteed a place in the knock out stages of the competition.