Football Trafficking – The New Slave Trade

After being in the spotlight during CAN 2008, Africa has once again proved itself to be a genuine powerhouse of football. Some of the talent that was on display was exceptional by anyone's standards. Players from Africa such as Michael Essien, Didier Drogba, Kolo Toure and Stephen Appiah are a perfect example to young aspiring African men that football pays and that playing with a professional club in Europe can be the financial equivalent of winning the lottery.

Football is for many people in Africa more than just a sport. For the kids playing in the streets and dusty fields of thousands of African towns it is their dream to be like their heroes Drogba and Essien. For parents football is seen as a genuine way of providing their children with a way out of poverty. But the route is paved with dangers and as the popularity of African footballers increases in Europe and around the world the emergence of a trade almost as shocking as the trans-Atlantic slave trade has occurred.

The streets of Accra and other major cities in Africa are full of kids playing football. These are not just games of football, they are the unlicensed football 'academies' of Africa, which have sprung up in response to the rising profile of African footballers in Europe. According to the Confederation of African Football (CAF), the sport's governing body in the continent, all such institutions must be registered with the local government or football associations. But they are not and it is from these academies that the trade begins.

Next to these unlicensed 'academies' are the legions of unlicensed agents and coaches who are looking for one thing only- the next big thing- the next Drogba or Essien. Coaches, as well as European and Arab middlemen, haggle over the best players, signing some as young as seven on tightly binding pre-contracts, effectively buying them from their families, with the hope of making thousands of dollars selling the boys on to clubs in Europe. In the case of agents, they promise the family of a young player and the player himself the opportunity to move to Europe and try out for the academy of a European club. Many take the deeds on houses and even family jewellery in return for their services. The modern footballer earns so much money that many parents are prepared to take their children out of education and even sell precious family heirlooms to acquire the money to pay these agents.

The problem is that most of these agents are villains, breaking their promises entirely. Agents often accompany the player to the point when they arrive and then leave the player with no money or accommodation and no trial with the team they were promised. The conditions they travel to Europe in are often despicable, and illegal. Many travel as stowaways in ships. Some take up to a month to arrive at their destination either severely dehydrated or with hypothermia.

One trafficked Cameroonian player recalls: “I was told by my agent as soon as I arrived that the football season had finished in the country where I was. He gave me two options: I pay him more money for him to take me to another country or he leaves me till the season started again in 3 months time. I had no money”

Stories like this one are very common and some of Europe's largest cities are littered with young African men who spend their lives dodging the police because their visas were either fake in the first place or they have expired. Many of the trafficked players have to devote their time looking for a safe place to stay every night. The standard of football is so high in Europe that if the players do not practice and train, they lose their ability and then have no chance of even playing for an amateur side.

FIFA president Sepp Blatter has accused big European clubs of “social and economical rape” referring to the buying of young African players very cheaply. He has also commented on the situation of player trafficking and illegal agents, dubbing them “false prophets”. Blatter says their existence is one of the most serious problems facing the continent because the unlicensed agents have over the years succeeded in luring talented young African footballers to Europe with the promise of finding them supposedly lucrative teams and contracts.

He has not been the only official to mention his concern over the situation. Tony Baffoe, the former Ghana captain has stated 'the trafficking of children to play football is a reality we must all face'.

'There must be better control of illegal academies across Africa,' Baffoe continues. 'Families should be questioning these coaches, not putting all their hopes and life savings into the relationship they have with them.'

Boys from Niger, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Cameroon and Mali play for teams in Cote d'Ivoire and Ghana in the hope of gaining passports from and eventually playing for their adopted nations.

This clearly contravenes FIFA's eligibility rules, which states that a player must have a 'clear connection' with their national team, such as a parent or grandparent who was born in the relevant country. This is also because they are more likely to be spotted by a scout if they are in Ghana or Cote d'Ivoire. So strong is the belief that their children can succeed in Europe that parents are prepared to send them to neighboring African countries to increase their chances of being spotted by an agent.

Although the reality of what happens to these young players is disgusting, there are success stories coming out of academies in Africa. One academy which has produced numerous top class players is the ASEC Mimosa academy in Abidjan. Players like Emmanuel Eboué, Kolo and Yaya Touré, Athur Boka and numerous others have come out of an establishment that is an example of exactly what football academies should be like.

When Andrey Bikey of Reading and Cameroon talks about the problem, he says: “I never went to a football academy; I started playing at school and near my home. I played for a third-division team and it was only when I was selected for the Cameroon under-17 team that I started to take football seriously. During a tournament in Italy the Espanyol manager invited me to a trial; now I've played in Spain, Portugal, Moscow and England.

“Many European teams go to Africa to watch boys with a view to bringing them to their clubs. It used to be only a few players, but now, every year in Cameroon, many children are brought to Europe for trials. A lot of young players in Paris have nothing; they have come from Africa and if their trial doesn't go well they are left on the streets. Some agent will pick up the kid and take them to Europe, and if it doesn't work out they abandon them.

Young players in Africa do need more help and more attention.”

By Joss Haynes