Work permit the obstacle for ‘Ando’

PFDC – BLACKBURN, The final hurdle between Andranik Teymourian and a contract with Premier League outfits Blackburn Rovers could be too much to handle for the Iranian midfielder.

In order to earn a work permit for the Premier League, a player from a non-EU country needs to have featured in at least 75% of his national team’s matches in the past two years, while his nation must be among the top 70 teams of the world according to FIFA rankings.

Teymourian, surely a backbone of the Iranian national team (ranked 65th in the latest FIFA ranking), played in 11 of 13 games in the past year, however, doesn’t fulfill the criteria for the needed two-year-spell.

‘Ando’ missed numerous national team games under Ali Daei in 2009, either due to injury or the games being held outside the FIFA schedule, however, also a few because Daei refused to call the then Fulham player up due to lack of match praxis.

Players not meeting the demanded criteria could still obtain a work permit if they are deemed “able to contribute significantly to the development of the game at the top level in the UK”, according to the rules.

In 2006 Teymourian had been granted the permit to join Bolton Wanderers according to this regulation after he had been unable to meet the 75%-rule, as he hadn’t debuted before 2005 in the Iranian national team.

However, if he, after a quite good Bolton but a disastrous Fulham spell, will again granted an exception, is uncertain at this point of time and so Teymourian’s dream to pursue his career in England’s top league might well find a sudden end in the coming days.