SOCCER LEGEND Michel Platini has said that the recruitment of young boys from Africa and South America by top European clubs amounts to little more than “trafficking”.
SOCCER LEGEND Michel Platini has said that the recruitment of young boys from Africa and South America by top European clubs amounts to little more than “trafficking”.
Speaking in France last weekend at an EU gathering of sports ministers, Platini – the legendary former French international who is now president of Uefa – commented: “Today, in the world and in Europe, there is trafficking of children. I will not mince my words because the situation is serious.
“What else do you call a phenomenon whereby children aged 12 or 13 are torn away from their environment and culture to join a business in return for payment? This is what is happening in football.”
He continued: “Together with Fifa, we are studying remedies, but measures can already be taken to ban the international transfer of minors, even within the European Union. In numerous European states, strict rules exist which prevent clubs – on threat of sporting sanctions – poaching [young players] from their rivals’ training centres.
“What the clubs cannot do at home, they can do with their European neighbours or in Africa or Latin America, with disastrous consequences on the training centres and on the psychological well-being and education of young players.”
Platini added that “when one knows less than one youngster in 10 who goes to a training centre goes on to have a professional career, one can understand the precarious nature of their situation and the importance of an education which prepares them for life beyond football.
“It is in this context that we would like to be able to ban international transfers of players under the age of 18 within the EU. This is not to create an obstacle to the free movement of labour – it is an urgent matter relating to helping youngsters in danger.”
Platini called on the ministers and European political authorities to take firm and decisive action in all of these areas to help defend, protect and preserve Europe’s sporting values. He said that European soccer would make a full contribution to building the Europe of the future, and insisted that a game loved by millions of European citizens could not merely be viewed as an economic activity or product.
“Sport does not aspire to put itself above the law,” Platini told the ministers, “but it is specific. Sport is not an economic activity like any other. Sport is about sharing, surpassing oneself, exchange, respect. Sport is about emotions. Football is a game rather than just a product or a market. It is a spectacle rather than just a business.
“Sporting equity and competition balance cannot be submitted to arbitrary market laws. Europe must change its stance – it must take inspiration from sport, instead of imposing on sport unsound ideological models which have been pre-manufactured elsewhere.”
