For years, developing nations have relied on the exports of their most precious resources, such as gold, silver, and oil, in order to survive economically. Through this process, they have developed a dependency on the powers of the world, relying on them to infuse capital into their struggling economies in exchange for such resources. Nowhere is this form of post-colonial exploitation more evident than in Africa, where scarce resources abound and poverty is rampant. Today, however, there exists a new commodity to exploit: young, talented soccer players. There are several African soccer leagues, but none can compare to the profitability of European leagues, and as a result, African youths grow up with the dream of playing for the top European clubs, where they imagine they can make inordinate sums of money to send back to their families. This dream, however, provides a niche for profit-seeking businessmen to swoop in, taking kids as young as twelve from their homes with the often false promise of success in Europe. While some players buck the trend and become European stars, the majority of them fail, their profit value plummets, and they are subsequently abandoned, left to drift in a foreign country embarrassed that they failed to fulfill their family's dream.
Of course, the flip side of the argument is that these 'agents' provide the opportunity for kids in a situation in which they have no other options; that is, at least they are given a chance to go make money for their families. Clearly, there are those who eventually succeed with European clubs; however, as the Irish Independent News reports, even the most successful African players have a problem with the current system. Nwankwo Kanu (pictured left), Portsmouth's Nigerian center-forward, has twice been African player of the year, won the European Cup, and won an Olympic gold medal; yet, he still takes issue with "agents who have for years preyed on young African players, ripping them off and leaving many penniless and abandoned."
Regrettably, the exploitation does not end even for those who are fortunate enough to sign contracts with European clubs. Georges Mojado of Cameroon began playing for the Belgian club team RAEC Mons when the minimum wage was 1,075 euros per month. He received 150 euros instead, less than 15% of the 'minimum' wage. Timothee Atouba, also of Cameroon, was paid only 1/3 of his promised salary from Neuchatel Xamax of the Swiss League, and his complaints regarding his income were met with threats to send him back to Cameroon. Moreover, players of African descent are often subjected to racism during matches, an epidemic that may be growing rather than receding.
Still, there are marginal benefits to the continent-wide talent search. In Qatar, for example, the government-funded Aspire Sports Academy (pictured below) has begun providing scholarships and elite training facilities to those (ages 12 and up) who make it through the final round of competition, many of which are young Africans that would not otherwise have such an opportunity. However, the growing concern is that there are few social safety nets; in other words, for those who do not make the final cut, unknown instability is likely to follow. Further, concern has been raised in regards to the overarching goals of this massive recruitment; specifically, some believe that the talent search is solely a means for Qatar to enhance its national teams. This worry is not unfounded, considering that Aspire officials will own the players' rights once they become eligible to play professionally.
Finding a suitable answer to the debate will be difficult. On the one hand, one would be hard-pressed to take issue with the endowment of scholarships to poverty-stricken kids. On the other hand, the use of these players for commercial and national gain is naturally exploitative. On a larger scale, moreover, African countries are losing out on the possibility of economic prosperity. In Europe, soccer clubs make enormous margins of profit, by virtue of both ticket sales and corporate sponsorships, which allows them to offer large contracts. In Africa, however, the lack of capital creates a vicious cycle. Players have no opportunity for economic prosperity within the continent because the clubs do not possess the necessary capital to compete with Europe for star players. As a result, the lack of talent on the clubs piques little interest both nationally and abroad, leading to a lack of both ticket sales and corporate sponsorship.
There appears to be no easy solution. Yet, there is hope. African star Nwankwo Kanu (mentioned above) is setting the standard for fixing the system with his new Kanu Football Foundation. Established in May, the organization hopes to follow in the successful footsteps of his first foundation, the Kanu Heart Foundation, by providing help and advice to young soccer players and their families free of charge. Furthermore, says Kanu, the foundation will aim to set up academies across the continent, including countries such as Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Uganda, and Somalia, in order to provide a better education and more opportunities locally. While Kanu is realistic about the unlikely prospect of stars staying to play locally in the near future, ("where there is no money, people don't want to stay"), he is optimistic about the potential for change. "I hope the foundation will advise leagues and associations on how to improve," he says. "We do have to find local stars for local leagues so that people can aspire to be them also."
FIFA (French for International Federation of Association Football) has joined in the movement towards change as well, investing heavily in its 'Goal' Project over the last several years, aimed at improving African domestic leagues. Significant change, however, must come from within, and Kanu has taken the first step in that direction. Ending the exploitation may not be easy or quick, but at least there is hope that with hard work, it can happen.
1 comment:
This post effectively takes a complex subject, analyzes its many components and ramifications, and offers nuanced conclusions and predictions about the future of sports exploitation in Africa. You offer insight into the problem – that young African soccer players are sent to Europe at a young age for the commercial benefit of Europeans, and to the detriment of most Africans – and you take a moral stand that this is a bad thing. From there, however, you take an objective path that allows you to see the positive and negative, and the steps that are being taken to correct the problem. I think that this structure – presenting a problem, addressing its complexities, offering opposing points of view, discussing current modes of solvency, and then making your own suggestion – is the perfect way to take on social, cultural and political issues in academia.
With such a well thought-out structure and argument, most improvements to this post can only be made aesthetically. The first thing to come to mind is paragraph five, in which there is a tendency to over-use connector terms at the beginning of sentences (on the other hand, on a larger scale, in Africa, in Europe, as a result, etc.). Another improvement might come in cutting down the number of paragraph changes – while I’m certainly not an expert in the blogosphere yet, it seems like a more traditional format favors 4-5 longer paragraphs, instead of the newspaper style which calls for many paragraphs for easy reading. The last two paragraphs, for example, could perhaps be conjoined into one. But then, I don’t really have an academic justification for this other than the observation that “everyone else does it.”
My final thought is just that I like the topic. Exploitation and mistreatment of the poorest countries in the world, and their people, remains rampant and under-reported. While this may not be the continuing focus of your blog, I hope you return to related areas of discussion in the future!
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