Mount Pleasant visa issue clouds LA Galaxy Champions Cup tie

Mount Pleasant FA are facing the prospect of travelling to Los Angeles for Wednesday’s CONCACAF Champions Cup round-of-16 first leg against LA Galaxy without up to 10 first-team players after difficulties securing U.S. visas.The Jamaican club are scheduled to face the Major League Soccer side at Dignity Health Sports Park on March 11, with the return leg set for March 19 at the National Stadium in Kingston.The issue centres on several foreign players in Mount Pleasant’s squad who have been unable to obtain the documentation required to enter the United States in time for the fixture, leaving the club scrambling to finalise a travelling party.Sporting director Paul Christie said the situation had significantly disrupted the club’s preparations for one of the biggest matches in its history.He said: “We don’t want to just show up for the game, we want to be able to compete but we are not being given the opportunity to be at our best.”Mount Pleasant have been working with CONCACAF in an attempt to resolve the issue, but the timeline before the team’s scheduled departure has left little room for a solution.The Jamaican club have several Haitian players in their squad, who face US travel restrictions under the Trump  administration and Christie said the affected players had not even been able to get a date for the interviews at the US Embassy. He said the rebuff had “significantly and severely handicapped” their chances.Christie said several affected players had still not received visa interview appointments, raising the possibility that the club would have to rely heavily on academy players to complete the squad.He said: “This is not just about Brand Mount Pleasant, but this is also about Brand Jamaica. We don’t want to just show up for the game, we want to be able to compete but we are not being given the opportunity to be at our best.”The likely football impact could be significant with Mount Pleasant potentially forced to include seven or eight youth players in the travelling squad, many drawn from the club’s development system and recent Jamaica youth national team groups.The club qualified for the Champions Cup round of 16 after winning the 2025 CONCACAF Caribbean Cup, securing a direct berth at this stage of the confederation’s top club competition.That victory marked a milestone for Mount Pleasant, a club backed by Jamaican telecommunications entrepreneur Peter Bunting and positioned as a long-term development project combining academy investment with regional competition success.The tie with LA Galaxy represents one of the most prominent international fixtures in the club’s history and a rare opportunity for a Caribbean club to face one of Major League Soccer’s most recognisable brands.For CONCACAF, the situation highlights the operational complexities facing cross-border competitions across North America, Central America and the Caribbean, where immigration requirements and visa processing timelines can materially affect competitive balance.The Champions Cup is the confederation’s flagship club competition and serves as the qualification pathway to FIFA’s expanded Club World Cup, increasing the commercial and sporting stakes of knockout ties such as Mount Pleasant’s meeting with LA Galaxy.