Thorns’ Castellanos on potential travel ban: Uncertainty ‘scary’

Portland Thorns and Venezuela women’s national team forward Deyna Castellanos said she does not know when it will be safe for her to travel outside of the United States due to uncertainty around potential travel bans to the United States for dozens of countries, including Venezuela.

“The uncertainty of like, yeah, I can go home but not knowing if I can come back is something that is very scary, not just for me but players across the league,” Castellanos told reporters on Wednesday.

ESPN first reported last week that Castellanos did not travel to Venezuela for a recent pair of national team games against Panama due to a lack of clarity around the United States’ new potential travel bans.

“It was very sad I couldn’t go with the national team, but I think it was the right decision for me to stay and just keep training and growing here — but mainly to be able to stay and keep playing here in the U.S.,” she said on Wednesday.

Venezuela was reportedly listed on the highest level of potential travel bans proposed from the Trump administrator, but the plan, along with a potential list of countries, is not yet finalized.

Several of the NWSL’s international players stayed with their clubs during the recently concluded FIFA window due to the proposed travel bans.

Four of Zambia’s top players compete in the NWSL, but they stayed in the U.S. instead of joining their national team in China this month. Those players were: Orlando Pride trio Barbra Banda, Prisca Chilufya and Grace Chanda, along with Bay FC forward Racheal Kundananji

Zambian FA general secretary Reuben Kamanga said last week that “recently introduced measures” prevented the players from traveling, but that they “will definitely be available” for future international duty.

The next women’s FIFA international window begins in late May.

There are continental championships being staged this summer in Africa, Europe, Oceania and South America.

“I’ve worked in professional sports for decades, and I think there’s many times in our history where the professional sports leagues, depending on what policy discussions are going on, use that as an opportunity to convene and educate about how decisions that are being made impact our business,” NWSL commissioner Jessica Berman told ESPN.

“That’s what we’ll continue to do in order to be prepared and ensure that we’re set up to support our athletes and our business.”

Potential U.S. travel bans could cause problems for soccer leagues and events beyond the NWSL.

The U.S. will host two significant international men’s tournaments this summer: the Concacaf Gold Cup and FIFA’s expanded Club World Cup.

The first 48-team men’s World Cup will be predominantly hosted by the U.S. next summer.

“We’ve had a long-standing relationship with the state department,” U.S. Soccer CEO and secretary general JT Batson told ESPN.

“We have, for decades, been working with them on visa-related dynamics, so that’s something we’ve been doing for quite some time and my guess is that if we’re talking to someone 20 years from now, we’re still going to be navigating around visa dynamics as players come from all over the world. That’s pretty standard stuff for us.”