Al Bangura gets work permit

Al Bangura, the Watford midfielder, has won his work permit appeal to stay in England. The player faced deportation from England after the Home Office were unhappy with his previous application.

But after a meeting with Liam Byrne, the Home Office minister, the club were handed the unusual option of applying for a work permit - which has now been granted.

Bangura arrived in the UK at the age of 15 and made his debut for the club as a 17-year-old in April 2005. He became a father last month and would have been forced to leave his girlfriend and son behind had he been deported back to Sierra Leone - where he has no immediate family.

After his original appeal was rejected, his boss Adrian Boothroyd had said: “This country, great as it once was, seems to allow anybody in to send benefits wherever they fancy and we have one young man here who pays his taxes, has a fiancee and a newborn son and somebody somewhere thinks it’s a good decision to send him back to Sierra Leone. It’s ridiculous.”