Working visas for sportsman

[RacingPete]

Just had a debate in the office about how it works for a professional sports players to play in another country, as they will need working visas to be allowed to be paid for working in that country.

For example golf and tennis players play around the world, and then also the sponsorship deals and endorsements they must do - surely some of them must have working visas for most mainstream countries in the world all the time.

Then there are whole football teams that need visas, say you are a Russian club side drawn against a British one - you have 13 different nationalities in your squad and there is two weeks till the game is played...

I would assume the Visa request needs a sponsor also, so is that the governing body of each country sponsoring them, or the tournament they are in?

Anyone know how this all works?

[Ollie_M]

If they are going to represent their country and have been told they have to go then yes it is paid for along with flights accommodation etc but if they are doing it for training and their own benefit then no they have to pay for it all themselves

[FlyingMeeces]

With road cyclists the team pays. It's regularly a complete and utter nightmare, even pro managers/rider-looker-afterers who are well used to sorting this stuff out for their guys/gals get caught out sometimes, a couple of ?Eritrean-I-think riders were almost prevented from starting the Tour de France the year it kicked off in Leeds.