TORONTO, June 13 -- Ghana's most important midfielder will spend his team's World Cup opener in a different country. Canada has refused Thomas Partey a visa, FIFA confirmed on Friday, keeping the 32-year-old out of the match against Panama in Toronto on June 17 because of the criminal charges he is facing in Britain.

The charges are not vague. Partey, the former Arsenal player who now plays for Villarreal, has been charged by London's Metropolitan Police with seven counts of rape and one count of sexual assault. He has pleaded not guilty to all of them and is on bail with conditions barring contact with his accusers, awaiting a trial that has been set for June 2027 at Southwark Crown Court. He is, in the language the law insists on, pres...