The reason behind the failure of the vice captain of the Nigeria senior national to secure a work permit to play for English Championship side Birmingham City has been revealed to Owngoalnigeria.com.
Onazi already agreed terms with the Championship side with a fee of a little over €4m agreed for his transfer from Turkish side Trabzonspor , but the deal is on hold after the 24 year old application for a work permit was rejected by the English FA.
The former Lazio man who has played 38 times for Nigeria had his first application for a work permit rejected by the FA last week, but was hoping to get one after they lodged an appeal.
However the appeal turned out to be unsuccessful no thanks to Nigeria’s poor position in the FIFA rankings in the year under review despite Onazi playing in more than the required amount of games.
Nigeria’s failure to qualify for the past two editions of the Nations Cup has affected his chances of securing a work permit to play in the English Championship as it affected their rankings in the year under review
Despite appearing in over 80% of the national team games, Onazi failed to earn a permit after the FA considered the West African nation’s world ranking in the past two years.
They are ranked 38th in the August 2017 ranking, but Nigeria finished 54th on aggregate over the past two years.
Osas Mahawi
