They played at a World Cup and got stranded: Argentina’s U19 basketball team cannot return to the country due to the flight restriction

Argentina U19 basketball team stranded in Frankfurt after representing our country at the world championship in this category.

This was the fifteenth edition of the tournament attended by 16 nations from all over the world, played in the cities of Riga and Daugavpils, Latvia.

The Argentina team placed in the top four teams in the Pan American Basketball Confederation (FIBA Americas) along with the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico.

The team made up of twelve players, three coaches, a physical trainer, a kinesiologist, a doctor, a props and a team manager I had to return home this Monday, on a flight from Madrid operated by the Spanish airline Iberia. But it was canceled after government measures to reduce the quota of Argentines who can return from abroad.

It was last Friday that the national government released the Administrative decision 683/2021 which ordered a slight release of the air trap, which increased from 600 passengers per day to 742 who can return home, for the first week. This decision provided for a phased increase in quota, reaching up to 7,000 passengers for the last week of July and the same for the first week of August.

After learning of the cancellation of the return flight, the authorities of the Argentine Basketball Confederation (CAB) began collaborative efforts with state authorities to bring the delegation of twenty Argentines back to the country. Sources from the Ministry of Tourism and Sports have informed Infobae that the National High Level Sports Agency (Enard) and the Sports Secretariat are dealing with the problem to try to get them back to the country as quickly as possible.

After waiting more than 12 hours without hearing from them, they were transferred to a hotel in Frankfurt to await news of their return.

The last match played by the Argentina team was against Senegal last Sunday. They lost 75 to 67 and, in this way, the Selection ended its participation and was in eighth place. The next day he boarded a flight from Riga to Frankfurt, an airport where after waiting over 12 hours with no news, they were transferred to a hotel in Frankfurt pending news of their return.

Without certainties, It is estimated that the delegation will have to stay in Germany until July 17, date on which a plane would be available for their return.

This is not the first time that a delegation of Argentinian athletes has been affected by the provisions issued on June 25 by the national government reducing the entry quota into the country. In late June, the men’s beach volleyball duo found themselves stranded in Chile after competing in the continental pre-Olympic tournament that qualified the men’s and women’s duo for the Tokyo Olympics which kick off on July 23.

Of course, it’s not just the athletes who are being harmed. What Infobae reported in recent weeks, there are many Argentines who are abroad without being able to return to the country. Airlines estimate that this is a total of 40,000 and that it would take about 5 months to get them all in under the permits granted by the government.

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