Spanish players leave Northern Ireland football team due to 'overpriced and third-world' housing
Spanish players leave Northern Ireland football team due to 'overpriced and third-world' housing
TWO Spanish footballers have quit the Northern Ireland-based Sofía Farmer FC after the team put them up in 'third-world' accommodation.
Álex Gil and Toni Jiménez, from Córdoba, were signed up by team manager Alberto del Barro – from Portugal – and were provided with housing in the UK region.
The players, aged 25, said they were charged 500 pounds (currently around €550) a month in rent.
They later found out the club was renting the house for just 330 pounds (€363) and pocketing the difference – something they discovered when they stumbled upon a copy of the contract whilst cleaning.
As if that was not enough to choke them off living and working in Britain, the players say the house had no electricity, the beds were broken and the mattresses filthy.
They had been told they would be living together in a self-contained flat, but discovered they were actually sharing with another couple who had no connection with the team.
“It was clearly a fraud, and all that after having been dumped and left to our fate in a strange town from the moment we arrived,” complained Álex Gil.
“But thanks to the hospitality of other Spaniards in the area, we didn't have to sleep on the street.
“We spent 12 days trying to find the money to eat, and in the end we realised we'd been 'had' and went home to Spain.”
Jiménez and Gil had recently played for a team in the Maldives, where their experience was completely different.
“We wouldn't wish this on anyone, but now it's just got to be onwards and upwards and keeping up our desire to carry on playing,” said Gil.
Sofía Farmer FC is a provincial-league team.
It has not commented on the Córdoba players' claims.
The photograph shows Northern Ireland fans cheering on their team at the UEFA Euro.
