Image via WikipediaNovember 08, 2010 11:02 AM (PT) 
Watching professional soccer players fly across the field with a balance of grace and power, it's hard to believe that any of them might be victims of human trafficking. But for years, recruiters have lured young boys from out of villages in Africa with the promise of becoming professional footballers. After years of grueling practice, a select few are signed to professional teams. But many are forced to work or beg once they arrive in their destination. Now FIFA, the group which governs professional soccer and runs the World Cup, has created a new program to help end trafficking of young boys into the sport.For years, traffickers have been taking advantage of the hero-status professional footballers have across much of Africa. Recruiters will enter towns and villages, ost tryouts for young boys, and then pick the most talented to attend a special "training academy" in Europe or major cities in Africa. Families will often go into debt to afford the fee to send a son away, banking on the hope that he will return home a star. But once they are in the underground academy system, boys are bought and sold like any other commodity, sometimes being trafficked within the system. After being subjected to grueling practice schedules that leave little time for sleep, a tiny percent of players might be sold to a professional team or legitimate academy. Many, however, will find themselves forced to work or beg in order to keep chasing a dream that will never come true.
After years of growing outrage at the massive child trafficking industry supporting professional soccer, FIFA has stepped in with a solution they call the Transfer Matching System (TMS). The TMS collects 30 identifying pieces of information about a child, and for a transfer from one academy or club to another to be recognized, the data must match perfectly. Plus, children under 18 must have parental consent for transfers to be made. FIFA claims this system will prevent the "over-the-counter" type sales of children which has gone on in the past (never with the child's best interest in mind), as well as prevent "losing" kids within the system (inevitably to child trafficking in other industries). TMS will represent the first attempt any professional sports organization has made to curb trafficking within their sport.
But while the new FIFA controls may help prevent African children from being trafficked within the system, they won't prevent them from being exploited at the point of entry. Unscrupulous recruiters can still convince poor families to pay exorbitant amounts to give up sons with little real chance of becoming professional players. And those boys can still end up being forced to work or beg to support their more talented peers during training. But the trading restrictions and identifiers will make it easier to determine which academies are exploiting players and where boys who don't make the cut end up. And the parental consent clause will help ensure children aren't "lost" in the system while their families desperately search for them.
A lot more needs to change to prevent the trafficking of African kids into professional soccer or fraudulent academies claiming to train athletes, but FIFA has taken a critical first step. And if they continue focusing on preventing trafficking in professional soccer, they recruiters who buy and sell young players will soon be out of business.
Photo credit: Smyl
Amanda Kloer has been a full-time abolitionist for six years. She currently develops trainings and educational materials for civil attorneys representing victims of human trafficking and gender-based violence. FIFA Fights Trafficking of African Kids Into Professional Soccer | End Human Trafficking | Change.org
Source: End Human Trafficking
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