Saturday 17 January 2015

The work permit issue

I was unenthusiastic about Guy Luzon's appointment as Charlton coach (I would have preferred to see Riga come back), but now he is here I would like to see him get on with the job and see what he can do. Hence the failure to obtain a work permit is a setback and does not reflect well on the club. Katrien, by the way, is a competition lawyer which is a very different area of law from immigration law.

Brian Haines gives his views on the situation here: Not a lawyer

One thing I do know is Luzon does have a Governing Body Endorsement which is a necessary condition for obtaining a work permit. He did have a work permit in Belgium, so an interesting situation would arise if another member state refused one, although I do not know what European case law there is on this. The principle of freedom of movement applies just to EU citizens, but there may be some spill over from it.

In any event, fans should be careful what they wish for when they hope that visa issues may forestall Luzon's appointment. There would be a delay in appointing a replacement and goodness knows who we would get.

Watford have a doubt over striker Fernando Forestieri (hamstring), while defenders Gabriel Tamas (cruciate) and Joel Ekstrand (back) are ruled out. Goalkeeper Heurelho Gomes will have a late fitness test but should play after being taken off last week. Yoni Buyens and Callum Harriot are back from suspension.

The bookies are not very enthusiastic about our prospects at Watford. Odds are: Watford 4/6, Draw 13/5, Charlton 5/1. Our record against Watford is, however, relatively good: we have won three of the last four meetings.

10 comments:

Brian G said...

It really has become farcical, hasn't it?B

Terry Ryall said...

At this point it is worth looking at the landscape that Charlton supporters are being told they must look upon and accept as being the way that things are going to be at CAFC. The RD and KM 'way', PR catastrophe, arrogance, a lack of strategic football vision and competence and now incompetence in an area that we at least COULD have expected better given Ms Meire's much vaunted legal backbround. I appreciate that Corporate Law is her speciality but I don't accept that as an excuse. As Brian G and others have said it is truly farcical. There is probably little that supporters can do but I'll finish with a positive suggestion, a plea for a little humility to be shown by RD and KM by looking intelligently at all aspects of how Swansea City managed their rise from near extinction to being both an attractive, sustainable, and financially viable force in the Premier league.It can be done.

Boneyboy said...

You don't need to be a qualified lawyer of any type to know that a work permit is required for anyone who isn't an EU citizen. Its a basic check that anyone involved in recruitmenting staff knows about. It suggests to me that GL was always a shoe-in.
I wonder whether KM's claims that there were 20 applications for the post will be less than helpful in securing a permit, as it suggets that there are other suitable (EU citizen) candidates.
whatever the outcome it doesn't show a high level of competence or forward thinking.

Terry Ryall said...

It would seem that the work permit for Luzon is not just a rubber-stamping job. I have no idea how long such a process can take but any longish delay in his getting a permit coupled with an up-turn in results would be interesting.

Unknown said...

Rip Charlton died when matthew took over

Anonymous said...

"up turn in results"....hmmm, hard to imagine that.

Anonymous said...

It's understandable cos "the players have had a hard week". Try doing a proper job Mathew like the night shift at at Tesco.

Unknown said...

MATTHEW CALL YOURSELF A COACH U CLUELESS WANKER

Terry Ryall said...

Yes, I can't argue with your scepticism Anon, we can but dream!

Anonymous said...

It was the worst of times, it was the best of times.
Or in the case of RD Charlton Plc it is the very worst of times.