Quincy Promes banned from leaving the UAE

Moscow “Spartak”, which is fighting for medals in the Russian championship that resumed on Friday after the winter break and which already faces the most important match in this fight with “Zenith” on Saturday, seems to be seriously at risk of losing its main star. Sentenced in February to six years in prison for drug smuggling, and previously sentenced to a year and a half for attacking a relative, Dutch forward Quincy Promes was detained in Dubai before flying to St. Petersburg from a training camp. Various sources suggest that the Netherlands may request his extradition to his homeland. Spartak has so far only admitted that Promes will miss the game with Zenit for “personal reasons,” and that after returning to Russia, “disciplinary measures” may be applied to him.

On Friday, Spartak Moscow issued a statement saying that Dutch forward Quincy Promes will miss the club’s away match against Zenit on Saturday in the Russian Championship, which resumes this weekend after the winter break. This is one of the most important games of the season for Spartak. After 18 rounds last year, the bronze medalists of the previous championship are in fifth place in the standings. However, their gap from the leaders is very small. Zenit, fighting for a sixth consecutive championship title and chasing leader Krasnodar, is six points ahead, while Dynamo, which completes the top three, is only two points ahead.

The Spartak message clarifies that Promes “is still in the UAE.” The team held a training camp in this country before the resumption of the season. The club is “in touch” with the footballer and “provides the necessary assistance in resolving the circumstances that did not allow him to fly to St. Petersburg on time.”

And “given that Promes will not participate in the game for personal reasons, after returning to Russia,” Spartak “will take disciplinary measures against him.”

This publication was, in fact, the first official recognition of the most high-profile emergency in domestic football in recent months. It became known on Thursday evening. It turned out that Quincy Promes, while passing through border control at Dubai International Airport before flying to St. Petersburg, was detained by local police and taken to the police station. On Friday, according to “RIA News”he was released from it, temporarily prohibited from leaving the UAE.

Various media resources and sources, of course, connected this event with the fresh background of Quincy Promes. And he is very extraordinary. In mid-February, the Amsterdam District Court found Promes guilty of organizing the illegal import into the Netherlands through the port of Belgian Antwerp of a huge amount of cocaine weighing more than 1,300 kg. The athlete, who was not present at the trial and tried not to leave the Russian Federation, was sentenced to six years in prison. In addition, last year the same court handed down another sentence against Promes – one and a half years for attacking his cousin with a knife. Representatives of Quincy Promes challenged both decisions in the Amsterdam Court of Appeal, however TASS claims that the footballer was subject to a so-called Interpol “red” notice after being found guilty of drug smuggling. It provides grounds for the country’s authorities to arrest a person fugitive from justice.

On Friday, the representative of the Dutch prosecutor’s office, Franklin Wattimena, confirmed to AFP, as well as other agencies, that in this case we are talking about an arrest.

True, he clarified that the reason was a “local” offense, that is, committed in the UAE (Quincy Promes has a residence permit in this state), and not in the Netherlands, an offense. A number of sources suggest that it may refer to an accident. Franklin Wattimena also refrained from commenting on whether the Netherlands would demand the UAE, with which it is bound by an extradition treaty, to extradite the criminal. However NOS And De Telegraaf insisted that negotiations were already underway.

Thus, there is a great risk that Spartak will lose a player whose role in the team was colossal. Quincy Promes first joined the Moscow club back in 2014 and played for it until 2018. After that, Promes played for Sevilla and Ajax. The second time he ended up in Spartak at the beginning of 2021, and the transfer took place just after the athlete had problems with the Dutch authorities. The Spartak team hardly regretted purchasing it until now. Last season, Quincy Promes, who recently turned 32 years old, scored 20 goals in the championship and took second place in the list of top scorers after Zenit’s Malcolm. In the first part of the current championship, he was again the most effective element of the Spartak attack. Promes scored the most goals and made the most assists – six each – among all Spartak players.

Alexey Dospehov