ORGANISERS of a Palestinian football tour to East Lancashire are considering legal action after players were denied travel visas by the Foreign Office.

An under 19s side from the war-torn state has been told it cannot take part in a three-week long footballing camp in the UK, which would have ended with a game against a Blackburn Rovers youth side.

But now tour organisers CAPE (Chester and Palestine Exchanges) are consulting lawyers in London to see if they can challenge the Government's decision.

Rod Cox, CAPE chairman, said: "It is just like saying that if you come from Lancashire and wanted to go on tour to France, and the French saying that they couldn't be sure that you would be allowed back into England, never mind Lancashire.

"Gaza and the West Bank are just parts of Palestine - and there is nothing to say that the players will not return once the tour is over anyway."

Officials from CAPE have approached London legal firm Hickman and Rowe, which specialises in immigration appeals, to see if they can overturn the Foreign Office's bar on the squad.

"This would have been great, for the Palestinian players, to compete in a large stadium against a Premership class youth team," added Mr Cox.

The game at Blackburn was pencilled in for September 8 - the same day that the national side plays Israel at Wembley.

A Foreign Office spokesman refused to discuss the Palestinian players' visa cases individually, citing privacy reasons.

But he did say that one factor in any visa application is how confident the authorities are that the person concerned would return to their home country at the end of their trip.

If Mr Cox and CAPE are unsuccessful then he is still looking at ways to salvage something from the proposed tour, which also included games at Chester City and Tranmere Rovers.

He is currently exploring the possibility of staging a publicity event in Blackburn to highight the Palestinian football cause.

In 2006 a documentary, Goal Dreams, was produced to document Palestine's attempts to reach last year's World Cup.

Mr Cox wants to bring one of the stars, player Morad Farid, to East Lancashire, to explain about the film's significance and is set to stage talks with the borough council over finding a suitable venue.