Whitecaps fans scrap U.S. travel plans
It is now a turf war where no one gets left behind.
The Vancouver Southsiders, the diehard Vancouver Whitecaps fan group, has advised members they will not organize bus trips to Major League Soccer games in Seattle and Portland after an executive order by U.S. President Donald Trump that bans travellers from seven Muslim-majority nations from entering the U.S. for 90 days.
Despite wanting to keep politics out of soccer, the executive of the Southsiders had a meeting and decided some of their members fall into the new U.S. travel restrictions and would be left behind if they organized bus trips to the States.
“Some of our members are directly affected by this ban and we know for sure they won’t be able to go into the United States,” said Peter Czimmermann, the president of the Vancouver Southsiders. “It was a hard decision to make, but it is about us as a group.”
The Southsiders have about 700 members and Czimmermann said close to a dozen would be denied entry to the U.S. under the new ban. The executive order was signed Friday and bars travellers from Iraq, Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen from entering the U.S. for 90 days. Administrators in the new government have indicated Trump is prepared to expand the ban beyond those seven countries if necessary.
Czimmermann said the executive decided they all would stay in Canada. Last year, the Southsiders sent three busloads of Whitecaps fans to Seattle and two more to Oregon for a Portland game.
“Those away games are lot of fun for us,” he said.
Vancouver Whitecaps president Bob Lenarduzzi said the club has been notified of the Southsiders’ decision.
“It is disappointing,” he said. “We prefer to have our fans in the stands at the road games.”
No players on the Whitecaps roster are from the seven banned countries, Lenarduzzi said, adding the same is true of other MLS teams.
“There isn’t a player in MLS that it affects,” he said.