UK football clubs bought and sold players before last night's 11pm transfer deadline, but did they make sure their purchases all had valid UK work visas?
The January transfer season ended with around £214 million being spent, including the sale of Spanish striker Fernando Torres to Chelsea for a British club record of £50 million.
But deals have fallen through in the past as players were caught without a UK visa.
Take for example, Manchester City. They paid £27 million for the services of Bosnian striker Edin Dzeko, but failed to get a valid work visa straightaway. He passed a medical, but was forced to return to Germany to await his visa which delayed the transfer by a week.
If big-money clubs like Manchester City can get it wrong, it shows how vital it can be to obey UK visa regulations and get sound legal advice before making the move to live and work in the UK.
Several big-name foreign players changed football clubs yesterday, including Brazilian David Luiz (Benfica to Chelsea), Senegal's El Hadji Diouf (Blackburn Rovers to Rangers), Bosnian Sergei Kornilenko (Zenit St Petersburg to Blackpool), Uruguay striker Luis Suarez (Ajax to Liverpool), and Nigeria's Obafemi Martins on loan to Birmingham City.
Let's hope the clubs have all done the paperwork, or this month will see the extra cost of solicitors' fees to sort out work visas.
Premier League Transfers: January 2011 (Daily Telegraph)
Learn more about UK work visas (Findlaw.co.uk)
More about UK immigration law (Findlaw.co.uk)
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