20/07/2025
STRANDED AND FAILED - CAPE TOWN CHILDREN ABANDONED IN EUROPE BY FOOTBALL TOUR OPERATORS
A group of young footballers from Cape Town, including 20 boys, 5 girls, and 3 coaches, remain stranded in Europe after a football tour organised by BT Football collapsed due to alleged gross mismanagement by organisers Brandon and Jonique Timmy. The tour, which was presented to families as a golden opportunity for their children, has left the group without return flights, short-paid accommodation, and minimal access to food or proper shelter.
One of the coaches on tour described the ordeal as a complete disaster, saying that flights were bought on the same day of travel without return tickets, despite return flights being a requirement for Schengen visa approval. Coaches, left without support from the organisers, were forced to use their personal funds to feed and protect the players. It’s reported that they have spent more than R60,000 of their own money trying to keep the group afloat.
The coach further explained how he and others walked kilometres at night while the children slept, looking for accommodation. After multiple payment failures, the group was eventually evicted from their Lisbon accommodation and had to seek shelter at the airport, where temperatures soared above 40 degrees Celsius. Attempts to get help from the South African Embassy in Spain resulted in limited assistance, as embassy officials could only help with visa issues, not flights or accommodation.
With the situation deteriorating rapidly, some parents in South Africa began to step in, paying for flight and bus tickets for their own children and, where possible, for others. A group of nine players was successfully returned to South Africa under the care of one coach, but the remainder of the group remains in Europe, still relying on irregular payments from BT Football and emergency financial support from concerned families.
021News reached out to Brandon Timmy, owner of BT Football, for comment on th