The Africa (CAF) Forum
Culture Foot Solidaire
Category: African Football (CAF)
Created by: ultraroma Create Date: August 6, 2008 08:39 AM Last Comment: August 6, 2008 08:49 AM
In addition to his statement about 6+5 Blatter finally provided the footballing world a statement on the black market transfer of African players:
"The protection of minors is also another crucial issue. On 6 June, the Home of FIFA played host to a meeting between FIFA, the Confederation of African Football, FIFPro and 'Culture Foot Solidaire', a non-governmental organisation that is dedicated to the protection of young African players. World football's governing body fully supports the activities of 'Culture Foot Solidaire' to protect the rights of young African players, who are naturally attracted by the exciting prospects that they see in football but unfortunately sometimes betrayed by those who present themselves as their benefactors."
It's about time FIFA stood up about this. For years, the young African footballer has been targeted as nothing more than a natural resource worth strip mining. This is a topic that needs to be promoted at every level of the game - it's a tragedy that FIFA has allowed to be swept under the rug for years.
Comments (1 - 1)
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Here's the link on the statement that I saw in the FIFA news directory on the site this morning: http://www.fifa.com/aboutfifa/federation/president/news/newsid=839270.html?cid=rssfeed&att= About time FIFA issued at least a statement about this. But I have two questions - 1. has FIFA put aside funds to address this issue by helping families get reunited, and 2. why isn't Interpol involved? This is a law enforcement and education problem as well as repatriation calamity happening all over the world. African families pay what they believe to be agents for football clubs to get their sons off to player trials at European clubs, only to see them deposited on the streets once it's too late to discover that these agents are frauds. In some cases, the clubs themselves know it's going on, fail the kid in his tryout, and on the same streets these kids are deposited. Homeless, no paperwork, nowhere to go. You tell me why it took so long for FIFA to do anything and why law enforcement isn't involved at every level. Wanna know why? There's a dirty little secret out there that the clubs themselves are abusing the passport process when it's convenient to their own end. |
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| Posted: 08/06/2008 08:49 AM PST | LOGIN TO REPLY | |
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