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Football's Child Exploitation Part 1
Jay-Jay was trafficked when he was 17 from Guinea to London under the false promise of a career in football only to be forced into prostitution. While he finally escaped his captors, he remained in England, totally alone, having been tricked into believing he was good enough for a football career.
It’s no secret that foreign interests have long exploited Africa’s resources: oil, gold, diamonds, and, of course, people. What isn’t widely known is that in 2018, Africa is now mined for its athletes.
For many young soccer players around the world, a professional career under the bright lights of Europe’s famous stadiums is the stuff dreams are made of. Playing for a big club comes with big rewards even by European and North American standards. When a door opens to a pro contract in Europe, it’s difficult to not step through and see what’s on the other side, especially for a hopeful African player who often has to contend with a daily grind of poverty at home.
Every year, thousands of young Africans pay men masquerading as football scouts for aeroplane tickets, passports and visas after being promised trials at European clubs. When they land, there is no one to meet them and no sign of a trial. They have been conned. Lured by the dream of self-determination through sport, the boys many are under 18 end up in Europe, unsure what to do next.
The stories follow a familiar pattern. A group of talented young footballers are invited to join a team with a promise of travel from Africa to Europe. There, they will play in trial matches that will lead to professional contracts. For this life-changing opportunity, the player must pay the coach, agent or scout (the recruiter is often the only variable in this equation) around $5,000, sometimes more. It’s a significant sum – but with a professional deal in Europe at the other end, who wouldn’t get on board?
Except it is all a scam. When the players arrive in Europe, there are no scouts from professional teams waiting to watch and there are no trials to lead to a contract. There is also no hotel when the coach or agent disappears with all the money, leaving his players abandoned and alone far, far from home. They are victims of an underworld that trades and preys on dreams and poverty, and which the football world struggles to control.
Scammers and fakes take advantage of the economic vulnerability, aspiration, and the idea that a ticket to the big games in Europe seen on TV screens around the world will reverse generations of inequality in Africa.
Most scammed players end up as silent victims; they are reluctant to speak publicly about their experiences, and there’s little pressure on authorities or the global soccer industry to take meaningful action. Regardless of whether the issue meets the formal definition of trafficking, is simply another strand to irregular migration, or is a sports or education problem, governments across Africa and Europe as well as the European and African Unions, FIFA, UEFA, the Confederation of African Football, and law enforcement agencies would serve their communities better by addressing this blot on the beautiful game.
The football-driven movement of young males from Africa to Europe leaves a murky trail, one that includes human trafficking, child exploitation, money laundering, child benefit fraud and, in the vast majority of cases, broken dreams. The phenomenon also says much about economic conditions and drivers in the countries of origin. That such youths, often they are just children, strive to reach Europe in pursuit of a footballing career can somehow make the issue seem less serious. They are not fleeing for their lives and they have an evident skill to offer for which they may one day be lucratively rewarded. And there’s a further irony that, in a Europe where migration has become such a burning issue, those who demand tighter borders appear happy to suspend their principles when it comes to migration in football.
What's found in a lot of the debate about migration is that some migrants are more acceptable than others. A migrant footballer playing at Wembley is fine, but it seems a migrant plumber fixing the toilets at Wembley is less welcome.
The issue remains a huge problem for professional football yet goes largely ignored by those with the power to stop it happening.
The response from governments and institutions such as FIFA, UEFA, and the International Olympic Committee has been limp. In 2001, FIFA did introduce Article 19, a regulation stating that players under the age of 18 cannot sign a contract or register with a club in a country other than their own. There are caveats though: if a player lives within 30 miles of a country’s border and the club is within 30 miles of the same border, if a player is moving from one European country to another and is at least 16 years old, or if a player’s family moves to a different country for reasons not linked to soccer.
Article 19 has its critics. Some, ironically, are middle-class American families claiming the regulations should not apply to them if their talented children are recruited by European teams. Big Spanish clubs Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid, and FC Barcelona have received short bans from participating in the transfer market for not complying with Article 19, while the English Premier League team Chelsea is under investigation for possible breaches.
But Article 19 hasn’t stopped the flow of young players from Africa to Europe. Governments, soccer authorities, and law enforcement officials seem stuck on whether the irregular flow of African players to Europe meets the legal definition of trafficking if it is a sports issue or a migration issue, and who exactly should have authority to deal with it. One question is whether the issue can be defined as trafficking if someone over the age of 18 willingly pays fees to travel to Europe and, for law enforcement, at what point a potential crime is committed. A case in Belgium involving minors fell apart in court when after an investigation that revealed fake passports, an academy in Nigeria, agents, and professional clubs, the players admitted they wanted to come to Europe and had signed a contract with a player agent, even if that contract came with terrible conditions for the players.
There’s a strong chance that the kids are complicit and just want to get out. They’re not naive. If they don’t sign at a club, they can get a job on the black market doing something cash in hand.
This is not to deny that there are victims. There are those who think they’re moving for football and are siphoned off into criminal practices.
Fifa does not come off well. What they should do is say, no exemptions, you can’t move children under 18 from their country. You’d still have scouts and agents playing the underworld system in Africa to get visas, passports and birth certificates faked, but you’d cut out a huge swath of the problem.
How players move from Africa to Europe is often overlooked and there are many opportunities for young athletes to be exploited.
Trafficking in persons remains the fastest growing crime in the world. The pretence of a professional career in Europe’s leagues is often used to recruit young men into an underworld that benefits no one except those who want to exploit others. Creating pathways for the safe development and movement of young players searching for an opportunity in professional football is important for the sport and our society.
Two migration routes have evolved in recent years. A more formal structure involves governing bodies such as FIFA, UEFA and the Confederation of African Football (CAF), working with European clubs and registered academies in Africa to pinpoint potential talent. The more common route, though, has been for the many children who do not reach such academies to try and make their own passage, invariably after being approached by unscrupulous fixers. Alongside this, small, unlicensed academies have sprouted up across the region, often run by men posing as agents.
Concern is growing that the formal academy system enables European clubs and speculators to take ownership or executive control of African based academies to sidestep certain regulations, such as the ban on the international transfer of minors, in order to sign African talent at an early age and then profit from their subsequent sale to rich, typically European, clubs.
FIFA and other sporting agencies have struggled to turn rhetoric into enduring meaningful action. They want to encourage kids to play football, play the beautiful game, and don’t quite understand how they are being exploited. We have to get away from the idea that football is a game of hard knocks, where you either make it or you don’t. We need to look after the 98 per cent who don’t make it.
Jay-Jay was trafficked when he was 17 from Guinea to London under the false promise of a career in football only to be forced into prostitution. While he finally escaped his captors, he remained in England, totally alone, having been tricked into believing he was good enough for a football career.
It’s no secret that foreign interests have long exploited Africa’s resources: oil, gold, diamonds, and, of course, people. What isn’t widely known is that in 2018, Africa is now mined for its athletes.
For many young soccer players around the world, a professional career under the bright lights of Europe’s famous stadiums is the stuff dreams are made of. Playing for a big club comes with big rewards even by European and North American standards. When a door opens to a pro contract in Europe, it’s difficult to not step through and see what’s on the other side, especially for a hopeful African player who often has to contend with a daily grind of poverty at home.
Every year, thousands of young Africans pay men masquerading as football scouts for aeroplane tickets, passports and visas after being promised trials at European clubs. When they land, there is no one to meet them and no sign of a trial. They have been conned. Lured by the dream of self-determination through sport, the boys many are under 18 end up in Europe, unsure what to do next.
The stories follow a familiar pattern. A group of talented young footballers are invited to join a team with a promise of travel from Africa to Europe. There, they will play in trial matches that will lead to professional contracts. For this life-changing opportunity, the player must pay the coach, agent or scout (the recruiter is often the only variable in this equation) around $5,000, sometimes more. It’s a significant sum – but with a professional deal in Europe at the other end, who wouldn’t get on board?
Except it is all a scam. When the players arrive in Europe, there are no scouts from professional teams waiting to watch and there are no trials to lead to a contract. There is also no hotel when the coach or agent disappears with all the money, leaving his players abandoned and alone far, far from home. They are victims of an underworld that trades and preys on dreams and poverty, and which the football world struggles to control.
Scammers and fakes take advantage of the economic vulnerability, aspiration, and the idea that a ticket to the big games in Europe seen on TV screens around the world will reverse generations of inequality in Africa.
Most scammed players end up as silent victims; they are reluctant to speak publicly about their experiences, and there’s little pressure on authorities or the global soccer industry to take meaningful action. Regardless of whether the issue meets the formal definition of trafficking, is simply another strand to irregular migration, or is a sports or education problem, governments across Africa and Europe as well as the European and African Unions, FIFA, UEFA, the Confederation of African Football, and law enforcement agencies would serve their communities better by addressing this blot on the beautiful game.
The football-driven movement of young males from Africa to Europe leaves a murky trail, one that includes human trafficking, child exploitation, money laundering, child benefit fraud and, in the vast majority of cases, broken dreams. The phenomenon also says much about economic conditions and drivers in the countries of origin. That such youths, often they are just children, strive to reach Europe in pursuit of a footballing career can somehow make the issue seem less serious. They are not fleeing for their lives and they have an evident skill to offer for which they may one day be lucratively rewarded. And there’s a further irony that, in a Europe where migration has become such a burning issue, those who demand tighter borders appear happy to suspend their principles when it comes to migration in football.
What's found in a lot of the debate about migration is that some migrants are more acceptable than others. A migrant footballer playing at Wembley is fine, but it seems a migrant plumber fixing the toilets at Wembley is less welcome.
The issue remains a huge problem for professional football yet goes largely ignored by those with the power to stop it happening.
The response from governments and institutions such as FIFA, UEFA, and the International Olympic Committee has been limp. In 2001, FIFA did introduce Article 19, a regulation stating that players under the age of 18 cannot sign a contract or register with a club in a country other than their own. There are caveats though: if a player lives within 30 miles of a country’s border and the club is within 30 miles of the same border, if a player is moving from one European country to another and is at least 16 years old, or if a player’s family moves to a different country for reasons not linked to soccer.
Article 19 has its critics. Some, ironically, are middle-class American families claiming the regulations should not apply to them if their talented children are recruited by European teams. Big Spanish clubs Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid, and FC Barcelona have received short bans from participating in the transfer market for not complying with Article 19, while the English Premier League team Chelsea is under investigation for possible breaches.
But Article 19 hasn’t stopped the flow of young players from Africa to Europe. Governments, soccer authorities, and law enforcement officials seem stuck on whether the irregular flow of African players to Europe meets the legal definition of trafficking if it is a sports issue or a migration issue, and who exactly should have authority to deal with it. One question is whether the issue can be defined as trafficking if someone over the age of 18 willingly pays fees to travel to Europe and, for law enforcement, at what point a potential crime is committed. A case in Belgium involving minors fell apart in court when after an investigation that revealed fake passports, an academy in Nigeria, agents, and professional clubs, the players admitted they wanted to come to Europe and had signed a contract with a player agent, even if that contract came with terrible conditions for the players.
There’s a strong chance that the kids are complicit and just want to get out. They’re not naive. If they don’t sign at a club, they can get a job on the black market doing something cash in hand.
This is not to deny that there are victims. There are those who think they’re moving for football and are siphoned off into criminal practices.
Fifa does not come off well. What they should do is say, no exemptions, you can’t move children under 18 from their country. You’d still have scouts and agents playing the underworld system in Africa to get visas, passports and birth certificates faked, but you’d cut out a huge swath of the problem.
How players move from Africa to Europe is often overlooked and there are many opportunities for young athletes to be exploited.
Trafficking in persons remains the fastest growing crime in the world. The pretence of a professional career in Europe’s leagues is often used to recruit young men into an underworld that benefits no one except those who want to exploit others. Creating pathways for the safe development and movement of young players searching for an opportunity in professional football is important for the sport and our society.
Two migration routes have evolved in recent years. A more formal structure involves governing bodies such as FIFA, UEFA and the Confederation of African Football (CAF), working with European clubs and registered academies in Africa to pinpoint potential talent. The more common route, though, has been for the many children who do not reach such academies to try and make their own passage, invariably after being approached by unscrupulous fixers. Alongside this, small, unlicensed academies have sprouted up across the region, often run by men posing as agents.
Concern is growing that the formal academy system enables European clubs and speculators to take ownership or executive control of African based academies to sidestep certain regulations, such as the ban on the international transfer of minors, in order to sign African talent at an early age and then profit from their subsequent sale to rich, typically European, clubs.
FIFA and other sporting agencies have struggled to turn rhetoric into enduring meaningful action. They want to encourage kids to play football, play the beautiful game, and don’t quite understand how they are being exploited. We have to get away from the idea that football is a game of hard knocks, where you either make it or you don’t. We need to look after the 98 per cent who don’t make it.
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