by Mike McNabb
Whether the Watford footballer Al Bangura will turn into a star is impossible to predict.
What is certain is that the 19-year-old midfielder from Sierra Leone has been given permission to remain and work in the UK after a protracted battle with the Home Office against deportation.
But the panel that decided Bangura's fate was influenced not by his horrifying testimony of how and why he ended up in the UK but by his footballing credentials.
(Different rules for football?)
Insufficient grounds
In December an Asylum and Immigration Tribunal ruled that Bangura's story of fleeing the home of his birth aged 15 in fear of his life because of his father's links to a secret society were insufficient grounds for asylum status. Neither was the fact that Sierra Leone was being torn apart by civil war.
It seemed at odds with the principle of asylum that someone so young who had managed to escape atrocities and was in fear of his life should he return to his country was not worthy of refuge.
Byrne stepped in
Watford FC backed Bangura and the public expressions of support by chairman Graham Simpson and club manager Aidy Boothroyd undoubtedly helped. The fans chanted his name and Watford MP Claire Ward promoted his cause. Then, ahead of this week's panel meeting, immigration minister Liam Byrne stepped in. With all these loyal supporters, Bangura was a popular guy. Popularity is not usually enough to win the right to remain in the UK but, hey, he can kick a football.
Sadly there are many more Al Banguras awaiting decisions but they will have to do without similarly high-profile support. Neither will their sports talents be obvious. They will be expelled from the very country where they feel safe and returned to one where they do not. And what happens then? Who knows? Out of sight, out of mind.
If Bangura were returned to Sierra Leone there would have been an outcry - one would hope for humanitarian reasons rather than sporting ones.
Electioneering?
Either way this wouldn't have done much for Claire Ward's slim majority at the next general election. In 2005, she polled 1,148 votes more than the Liberal Democrat and 1,941 more than the Conservative.
Ward's commitment to Bangura's cause is beyond doubt. But there is more than a whiff of electioneering in the air at higher levels.
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