A thought-provoking article on how some recruiting operations for young footballing talent in Africa is akin to modern slavery, with families literally 'selling' their children to 'agents'. Only the very talented make it to Europe; god knows what happens to the rest.

http://football.guardian.co.uk/News_Story/0,,2099703,00.html

They join Tottenham :coffee:

Not sure about it being slavery becuase suring the triangle trade families were split up, abused, given nothing, never return home etc.

Whereas the Africans love playing football and while they (unfairly) genrally earn less than Europeans they still earn a lot of money which they are then able to send home allowing their relatives to live a better life. They are also able to see their relatives more or less whenever they want.

How it can even be compared to the suffering endured by the billions of Africans that were inolved in the slave trade is ludicrous.

OK yes maybe it doesn't bear direct comparison. But it's still highly exploitative. 'Africans love playing football' yes but you're talking about young kids here, who appear to have little choice in what happens to them. And once they are 'scouted' life hardly sounds easy for them

''The reality for most young players is further poverty and abuse. In countries like Malaysia, Thailand, Morocco and Tunisia the players more often or not end up on the street or sleeping 14 to a room. The majority are deported.''

I have to admit I din't actually read the link but that does sound terrible.

Having said that it's still nothing like the slave trade

or make our away strip for NIKE?

:cold:



But sadly true (well kind of ish)

The CEO of Nike turned over 5 billion dollars last year. In comparison, a factory worker in China would have to work 7 days a weeks, 8 hours a day for 10,000 years to accumulate that amount...


But they don't want to. Lazy... :coffee: