Tag Archive for 'Africa'

Foot solidaire: against the trafficking of the African young football players

Foot Solidaire (http://www.footsolidaire.org/#) is an internationally operating non-profit organization with the goal of protecting young soccer players from exploitation and trafficking due to their love of the game.

Predominantly in West Africa, but in other areas as well there are people posing as soccer agents or talent scouts that scam young players and their families. They promise the player (usually only about 16 years old) tryouts with professional European clubs and generally charge the equivalent of $2000. This usually means that the boys family will give the fake agent their entire savings, even selling their homes and businesses in order to provide their son with this opportunity. The “agent” then takes the money and flies the boy into Europe somewhere…and abandons him. These young men find themselves in foreign countries with nothing – no money, nowhere to live, and no means of contacting their family or getting back home.

Foot Solidaire works directly with the boys that find their way into the Paris metropolitan area as well as working with governments and soccer organizations to raise awareness and to make it as difficult as possible for these fake agents to keep working. Foot Solidaire is currently dedicating itself to a program of information dispersal, education, and the creation of positive soccer programs for young players in Africa.