Thomas Partey is unavailable for Ghana’s World Cup opener in opposition to Panama on Wednesday after he was denied entry to Canada.
FIFA confirmed to The Athletic’s Dan Sheldon that the Canadian authorities refused Partey’s visa utility. The Villarreal midfielder is subsequently unable to journey from Ghana’s base camp in Boston for the match in Toronto.
“FIFA shouldn’t be concerned within the immigration processes of host international locations, together with the adjudication of visas. As with earlier FIFA occasions, the host authorities finally determines who receives a visa and is admitted into the nation,” world soccer’s governing physique added in its assertion.
London’s Metropolitan Police charged Partey with 5 counts of rape and one rely of sexual assault in July 2025. The alleged incidents occurred in 2021 and 2022 throughout his five-season stint with Arsenal. He pleaded not responsible. He was charged with two additional counts of rape in February and pleaded not responsible once more.
Sam Okudzeto Ablakwa, the Ghanaian authorities’s minister for overseas affairs, launched a press release through X on Saturday urging Canada to “rescind its choice within the curiosity of equity and cardinal rules of frequent legislation.”
The assertion referred to as the choice to dam Partey’s entry “extraordinarily unfair” whereas it is “primarily based on pending legal proceedings in the UK that haven’t resulted in any conviction or judicial discovering of guilt.”
Ghana follows its Group L assembly with Panama with fixtures in the US in opposition to England (June 23 in Foxborough, Massachusetts) and Croatia (June 27 in Philadelphia).
Ghana head coach Carlos Queiroz defended his choice to pick Partey for the World Cup whereas he awaits trial at Southwark Crown Courtroom in London.
“Let occasions run its regular course, let the river stream, and at some point when the river meets the ocean, we’ll discover the reality,” Queiroz mentioned earlier in June.
He added, “In the present day, and this isn’t solely about Thomas, very sadly the best way social media, and the media typically, act with full and complete impunity, we’re condemned even earlier than we’ve the chance to defend ourselves.”
Partey is Ghana’s vice-captain and has performed six occasions for his nation since he was first charged. He featured in virtually two-thirds of Villarreal’s La Liga fixtures over the 2025-26 marketing campaign.
