Mission 89, the global research and advocacy organisation dedicated to combating child trafficking in sports and athlete protection, has announced the appointment of professional footballer and Nigerian international, Ashleigh Plumptre as a global ambassador. This strategic partnership underscores the organisation’s unwavering commitment to safeguarding young athletes and upholding the integrity of football.

Ashleigh Plumptre, renowned for her defensive prowess and dedication to social justice, brings a compelling voice to Mission 89’s initiatives against exploitation in sports. Her extensive experience at the highest levels of professional football, alongside her passionate advocacy for ethical practices, positions her as an exemplary representative for this vital cause.

“Sport Trafficking is a critical issue that demands immediate attention and action from all stakeholders – government, advocates, leaders, professional athletes and policy makers”, stated Lerina Bright, Executive Director of Mission 89. “Ashleigh’s dedication to protecting vulnerable young athletes and her platform as an athlete will be instrumental in amplifying our message and reaching communities at risk.”

The collaboration will focus on several key initiatives, including highlighting the risks of trafficking in sports through targeted campaigns and community outreach; strengthening global alliances to bolster child protection in sports; implementing strategies to safeguard young athletes from exploitation; and informing families, communities and other stakeholders about safe recruitment practices and the dangers of unscrupulous agents.

“As a footballer, I have observed firsthand how aspirations can serve as both a source of hope and a potential vulnerability for young athletes,” remarked Ashleigh. “My experiences in professional sports have taught me that talent alone is insufficient; protection, education, and ethical pathways are vital components. Mission 89 represents more than just an organization to me; it signifies a platform for transforming the narrative surrounding youth in football. We are not merely preventing trafficking; we are reclaiming the true spirit of the game—a spirit characterized by opportunity, dignity, and hope.”

“Football has the potential to transform lives; however, it is imperative that we ensure this transformation is both positive and secure. Joining Mission 89 enables me to contribute to the safeguarding of the dreams of young players who view football as their pathway to a better future,” she added.

This partnership emerges at a pivotal moment as the sports industry confronts escalating challenges in shielding young talent from exploitation. This comes as experts in Mission 89’s recently released Global Thematic Report on Sport Trafficking have also called for stricter legislation and collaborations between government and institutions globally to strengthen protective measures and protection against trafficking in the industry.

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The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) is the standard-bearer for all issues pertaining to the rights of children especially in countries where the legally-binding agreement has been ratified.  Article 19 UNCRC explicitly requires children to be protected from all forms of physical or mental violence, injury or abuse, neglect or negligent treatment, maltreatment or exploitation, including sexual abuse. Despite this, scholars such as Donnelly (2008) argue that currently, children remain the major class of persons who have enjoyed almost no increase in human rights in general, or in sport.

Football is a prime example of this. The lure of the Big 5 European leagues has increasingly led to the migration of young footballers from developing countries in Latin America, Asia and Africa. For every young footballer who “makes it” in Europe, there are a great number who not only fail to make the grade, but often fall into the wrong hands, and are subsequently left abroad and desolate.

Lionel Messi, arguably the most talented footballer of his generation, left Argentina for Barcelona at the tender age of 13 and reached super-stardom within a few years. In contrast, it is estimated that 15,000 young players are moved out of West Africa every year on false pretenses of fame in European football, but due to the lack of monitoring the number could be much larger in actuality (Poli, 2010). These young African footballers often end up being exploited by unscrupulous traffickers, ending up worse off than they were when they left their home countries.

In order for state actors, governing bodies and NGOs to counteract this phenomenon, it is critical that the push and pull factors of a young footballer’s decision to leave home in search of a football career in Europe is well investigated and understood.

Bogus agents and “talent scouts”

Recently, FIFPro warned footballers about criminals posing as player agents on LinkedIn. Several players informed FIFPro about their experiences with a person named Steve Mac Hughes who they say deceived them by promising trials or contracts with clubs in the United Kingdom and Asia. In short, this person approached them via LinkedIn, said that a club was interested and that he would arrange a trial or a contract if the player first signed with him and paid a fee. None of the players spoke with or saw the person; they communicated with the “agent” via LinkedIn and WhatsApp. After they sent the money through a Western Union account, the person broke off all contact. This phenomenon is particularly widespread in the many “football factories” all across the African and South American continents.

Money talks

Research conducted by Prof. James Esson (2015:521) of Loughborough University on the migration of young African footballers to Europe found that many of them believed that a career in professional football and migration to a league outside of Africa is a realistic career-decision in order to lift an individual and therefore vicariously their family out of poverty. This is seen as a hugely significant factor that lures impoverished and often desperate young footballers into migrating to Europe by any means necessary, playing into the exploitative hands of traffickers and fraudulent agents.

Easy as that

The global image of successful athletes, who mostly ply their trade overseas, creates a desire among the youth to also elevate their standards as well as whet their hopes and appetite for “success”. Hence, globalised societies and the immense influence of social media have created the illusion that success in football or sports in general is a given, as long as an individual has talent and the right work ethic.

For example, Poli (2006) conducted a survey with the Ivorian Under-17 national team, where 18 of the 23 players he asked said that, once in Europe, finding a professional club to play for would be easy. Such optimism was not shared by their team’s trainer who felt that only three or four of them had the requisite talent to breakthrough in Europe. For many talented young boys and girls around the world, any career pathway that offers hope for breaking out of poverty is worth the attempt.

“Cultural placement”

‘Cultural placement’ is a reciprocal arrangement where a young person leaves his immediate family and is placed in the care of an individual or household, with their labour offered in exchange for education and/ or training, as well as his means of subsistence. For instance in Benin, there exists a local tradition of “vidomegon,” where village children work as servants to wealthy urban families in return for education and training. This often extends to families sending their children to acquaintances who are not well-known in Europe, in the hope that their children have better life chances in the “western world” (Manzo, 2005). False promises of reciprocity and return are an increasingly common theme in the migration of young footballers from developing nations into Europe.

There is certainly some evidence to argue that societies where “cultural placement” is standard practice seem to be susceptible to football migration.

References:

1. Donnelly, P. (2008). Sport and human rights. Sport in Society, 11(4), 381-394.
2. James Esson (2015) Better Off at Home? Rethinking Responses to Trafficked West African Footballers in Europe, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 41:3, 512-530, DOI: 10.1080/1369183X.2014.927733
3. Manzo, K. (2005). Exploiting West Africa’s children: trafficking, slavery and uneven development. Area, 37(4), 393–401.doi:10.1111/j.1475-4762.2005.00644.x
4. Poli, R. (2010). Understanding globalization through football: The new international division of labour, migratory channels and transnational trade circuits. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 45(4), 491-506.
5. Taylor, M. (2006). Global players? Football, migration and globalization, c. 1930-2000. Historical social research, 31(1), 7-30.
6. Poli, R. (2006). Migrations and trade of African football players: historic, geographical and cultural aspects. Africa Spectrum, 393-414.

The writer, John Luke Chua, is a Graduate Research Assistant at Mission 89.

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The progress shown by African national teams in international competitions since the 1990s as well as the outstanding careers of African football icons such as Didier Drogba, Michael Essien and Nwankwo Kanu, to name a few, has fueled the desire of thousands of young West Africans to try to make it to “the top”.

While some footballers have been able to follow in their more famous predecessors’ footsteps, a disturbing by-product of this fascination with Europe’s football leagues has also been on the rise. This worrying phenomenon is known as “football trafficking” – for a more comprehensive definition of the term, see Esson and Drywood (2018).

The growth of African football has not gone unobserved. This has triggered a reaction, some clubs have been looking out for younger and younger “raw” talents to be “purchased” at a low cost, with the hope of turning them into established players to be sold at a higher price thus generating a big profit. On the other hand, the number of aspiring footballers craving to pursue a professional career in European football has also dramatically increased. Unfortunately, this demand and supply situation has created thriving grounds for exploitation of young talent.

Alarmed by the “race to young talent”, national and international institutions and sports governing bodies have taken restrictive measures. For example, FIFA introduced Article 19 of its Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Players, which states that international transfers of players are only permitted if the player is over the age of 18, unless their parents move to the country in which the new club is located for reasons unrelated to football, the player is aged at least 16 and the transfer happens within the European Union or the player lives no further than 50km from a national border and the club with which the player wishes to be registered in the neighbouring association is also within 50km of that border.

The goal of Article 19 is to put a limit to the frequent cases of fraud and abandonment linked with the movement of underage players as outlined in the “10 step guide to football trafficking” (Esson 2015).

Playing football at the best possible stage – Europe – per se is not the only motivation drawing large numbers of would-be footballers from the Global South. Research conducted on over 100 underage Ghanaian footballers revealed that they viewed migrating to a well-paid European league, where a player would get the maximum return on their ability, as the embodiment of self-reliance and entrepreneurialism (Esson and Drywood: 2018).

In other words, football is seen as a way of improving families’ social and economic status, a situation that is mostly perceived as impossible to achieve by staying in the country of origin.

Global South to North migration does not only pertain to football, although research in other sports is lacking.

With the aim to finding a way to balance two fundamental principles of the Convention on the Right of the Child, i.e adherence to the best interests of the child and the child’s right to participate in decisions regarding their future, further research into the migration of youth related to sports is needed as well raising the awareness of all the players involved, two activities in which Mission 89 has always been fully engaged in order to tackle the issue of the exploitation of young athletes.

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But wherever there are ambitions and aspirations there are also ruthless individuals ready to exploit those young dreamers. They claim to be football agents with contacts in Europe, approach kids who dream to play in Europe and ask for money from them or their family with the promise that they will arrange the documents needed and a trial at a professional club. However, when the youngster reaches the destination, if they do, the trial does not happen and, in the worst case scenario, the player is abandoned.

In other cases, the scammer keeps the money and disappears even before the journey to Europe takes place, as Daniel Saleh Iko, a 19-year-old Nigerian footballer, learnt the hard way. He has courageously decided to share his unfortunate experience with Mission 89 in this interview.

“I come from Kogi State, a central region of Nigeria, and have always wanted to become a footballer. I’ve played for local professional teams and I’m still playing and training hard as I don’t want to give up on my dream.

Not long ago, a man who claimed to have contacts in European football approached me saying that I was too good for the league where I’m playing. He added I should consider moving to a more ambitious stage. He said if I or my family had managed to put together about $ 3,500 for the expenses needed, he would provide me with some good opportunities to play professionally in Europe”

Fortunately for Daniel, soon afterwards he met trafficking survivor & Mission 89 Ambassador Matthew Edafe, who gave him some advise.  

Talking to Matthew helped me open my eyes. First of all he gave me a lot of encouragement and support. Then he made me understand the reality of that offer. He explained to me that when a real agent sees talent in a player, and if he really believes in that talent, he will be ready to invest rather than asking for money in advance because he’s confident that one day, when a proper contract is signed, he will get his own commission from the club. On the contrary, somebody bragging to have contacts at high level  in professional football and wanting to be given money even before a contract or a trial in Europe was not to be trusted.

In this instance, Daniel managed to keep the fake agent at bay but he had been less successful on another occasion two years earlier.

I was only 17 and all I wanted to do was to have a chance, so when a man promised he’d give me a chance to play for Newcastle United, I wanted to grab it. He was also asking for $ 2,000. My family managed to borrow that amount by asking several people if they could lend us some money. The idea was that if I had been able to play in Europe I definitely would have been able to pay back the loan and also support my sister who is still studying… But unfortunately it was a scam, and, while we lost all that money, I never had the opportunity to move to England.

It was a hard blow, both financially and psychologically.

It was such a bad moment for me and my family as it made our financial situation even shakier than it already was. I was so desperate I even attempted to take my own life and even now, when I think about it, I get frustrated and end up crying. But I don’t want to give up and I am going to train as hard as I can to make it to the top.

Thanks to Daniel, for speaking up. Painful as sharing this experience may have been, we are hopeful that through this, other young aspiring footballers will learn and make informed decisions about their career in and out of football.

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Players who have traveled from Africa are often discarded by clubs and agents and left to fend for themselves with no legal documentation. Without the support of family, friends, and a legitimate agent, they have to find a way to survive in Europe.

This story from German broadcaster Deutsche Welle (in English) explains why European clubs value young players from Africa and how agents can misrepresent the opportunities available.

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