Valencia reports to Immigration two players who refused to leave Maldives

Valencia has reported to Maldives Immigration the cases of two Nigerian football players who had failed to fly back after failing team trials. 

A video shared by 'Aslu TV' features an interview with one of these players, Godfrey Obaobono.

In the video, Obaobono statest hat he had come to Maldives on invitation from Valencia to participate in team trials. However, he did not qualify in the trials, and had been instructed by Valencia to fly back. 

Despite this, he had decided to stay on in the Maldives as his visa had not expired, opting instead to look for work on the streets. 

An official from Valencia said that the players from Nigeria had come to Maldives for the trials on their own expenses. The invitation extended to them was the letter required to obtain visa, they said. 

The agreement with the players' agents is to reimburse travel expenses if the players passes the trial, the official said. 

Valencia said that as the two players' performance had not been up to par by the end of the week-long trial, they had been told to leave the country. 

"The two players were staying at an apartment we arranged for them. They had return tickets as well. We had arranged for one of our officials to accompany them to the airport for their return flight," the official said. 

However, when the official had arrived at the apartment at the arranged time, they found that neither the players, nor their luggage was there. 

"The official then called the players, who said they were already at the airport," the official said. 

With this, Valencia had assumed that the two players had left the country. 

"But then we learned today that they haven't left the country. That they misled the club into thinking they were at the airport to fly out. As soon as we became aware of this, we reported it to Immigration," the official said.