Louis Bielle-Biarry and three team-mates were able to leave Bristol airport after being stuck for several hours
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Louis Bielle-Biarry and three team-mates were able to leave Bristol airport after being stuck for several hours
UBB, the two-time defending European champions, can breathe a sigh of relief. Louis Bielle-Biarrey and three other teammates (Romain Gardrat, Matis Perchaud, and Toma Taufa) were finally able to leave Bristol airport. They had been stranded on the eve of their Champions Cup match in Gloucester.
The four Bordeaux-Bègles players, including star winger Louis Bielle-Biarrey, who were stuck for several hours in Bristol on Thursday due to paperwork problems on the eve of the Champions Cup match in Gloucester, were able to rejoin their teammates in the evening, a source close to the matter told AFP.
Bielle-Biarrey, flanker Romain Gardrat, loosehead prop Matis Perchaud, and Tongan tighthead prop Toma Taufa, along with a strength and conditioning coach, Manu Espiasse, were able to leave the airport around 9:00 PM local time and travel to the Bordeaux delegation's hotel near Gloucester, an hour's drive away. The four players and this member of the coaching staff were accused of not having a valid ETA (Electronic Travel Authorization), a document required to enter the United Kingdom.
According to a club member interviewed early Thursday evening, their ETAs were linked to their old passports, which they changed this year, without taking the necessary steps to obtain new ones. The players and the strength and conditioning coach pleaded their good faith, and UBB (Union Bordeaux Bègles) worked tirelessly to find a solution, notably with the mayor of Bordeaux, Thomas Cazenave (a former minister under Emmanuel Macron), and the French embassy in London, but the British authorities remained inflexible for a long time.
A solution was finally found in the evening to allow them to leave the airport, without further details.
