A former Serbian soccer player who was beaten by hooligans back home is not allowed to stay in the United States.
Bojan Andric was visiting the United States on a visitor visa and applied for asylum.
He told the immigration judge that after a tie game, a group of fans called The Red Devils accused Andric of poor play and beat him into unconsciousness. He suffered a concussion, a skull hematoma, and facial burns.
After leaving the hospital, Andric asked to be released from his contract so he could play in a different city.
Instead, his team transferred him to another club in the same city. Andric said the Red Devils continued to stalk and harass him.
The immigration judge ruled against Andric, noting that he had not been harmed since the beating. The judge said that Andric had not proven that the police would not protect him.
The Board of Immigrations Appeals upheld the decision, so Andric took the case to the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals. He lost again.
Judge Ilana Kara Diamond Rover stated that Andric had conceded that his social group of “former soccer players” is not an “immutable characteristic” because he could simply stop playing soccer professionally.
“Any harm Andric fears,” she wrote, “stems from personal and performance-related grievances, not from membership in a cognizable group.”
Rover noted that Andric’s beating took place nearly 10 years ago, and he hasn’t played soccer professionally during that time.
“And if he does not return,” she added, “and is merely a ‘former soccer player,’ he has not provided any evidence that the hooligans would hold a decade-long grudge into retirement.”
