Abidjan (AFP) – Ivory Coast and Senegal home-based fans have been denied visas to the United States, dashing their hopes of following their teams at the World Cup.

The president of the Ivory Coast national supporters’ committee and an official from the Senegalese sports ministry told AFP that their supporters would be devastated.

“The supporters have cancelled the trip because the US government does not want to see supporters from certain countries, including Ivory Coast, on its soil. The United States has been clear with us, saying they do not want to see our supporters,” said Julien Kouadio Adonis, president of Ivory Coast’s National Committee of Elephants Supporters (CNSE).

“This situation hurts us deeply because it prevents us from fulfilling our sacred duty, which is to support our team.”

The Ivory Coast supporters’ group operates under the country’s sports ministry to organise trips for the country’s small number of travelling fans to follow the team abroad.

Ivory Coast play two of their three group matches in Philadelphia, against Ecuador on June 14 and Curacao on June 25 either side of a trip to Toronto to face Germany.

In March, Kouadio told AFP he hoped 500 fans would travel across the Atlantic.

He said a handful of CNSE officials had been authorised to travel to the World Cup where they will be “look after the Ivorian supporters based in the United States”, he said.

The CNSE estimates there will be more than 1,000 at matches.

The run-up to the World Cup, which kicks off in Mexico City later Thursday, has been dogged by the visa policies of the main host nation, the United States.

Somali referee Omar Artan was turned away last weekend and some support staff for the Iranian team have been denied entry.

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