The agent of midfielder Rodolph Austin, Darryl Powell, has spoken about the collapse of his client’s move to Championship side Sheffield Wednesday, saying that it “was very disappointing” that a change in the rules meant Austin couldn’t get a work permit.
In an interview with Radio Yorkshire’s Thomas Feaheny, Powell said “we agreed terms with them, we were driving up to Sheffield for a medical at 6pm and we got a call that they had spoken to their lawyers and there was no way that Rodolph would be able to get a work permit.
“It was very, very disappointing and we were quite surprised, I knew that the rules had changed to the top 50, but I thought that the fact that Rodolph had been in the country for the amount of time he’d been here and been playing in the league already, that he would be fine.
Powell also criticised the new rules that had been brought in by the Football Association. He told the station that “I think when they’ve done the new rules, I don’t think they’ve looked into it in any depth.
“They’ve thought we want to protect home-grown players and nobody is going to argue with that, but they never looked at the fact that what about players that have already been in the system, in the country for a number of years and have made a positive contribution to the game here.”
Whilst it is frustrating for his client, Powell also revealed that “the other frustrating thing for me is that Jamaica is a former commonwealth country and I actually played for Jamaica in 1988.
“Due to our success in going to the World Cup, we were invited to Buckingham Palace and met with the Queen just to congratulate us for our achievements with Jamaica. So it’s like a former commonwealth country and it’s still frowned upon from a work permit point of view.”
When asked about Austin’s time at Leeds United, the agent told Thomas Feaheny that “he loved playing in England, he also loved the life here in England. His son who is only two years old now was born in England.”
Whilst Austin had the chance to leave Leeds in January, Powell said that whilst it would have meant his client could have stayed in England, from a sporting point of view the midfielder wants to play at the highest level he can.
“We all know the quality of Rodolph Austin as a player at this level, especially with the amount of interest there has been in him. His qualities are deserving of playing in the Championship at least.
“He made a decision based on sporting grounds, he didn’t want to go to a club that could have been in League One which has proved the case, he wanted to be at the top end of the Championship.”
