Living between worlds: 

Diasporic Senses in Youth Football Labor Migrationu 

International sport is big business. All European states are now net immigration countries attributed to policy changes. Europeans are anxious about the ‘ghettoization’ of ethnic minorities in deprived inner cities, and also  the corresponding problems of inter-ethnic tensions and violence,

and more generally, the perceived fragmentation of social solidarity and collective identities, as a result of increased cultural diversity (Boswell, 2005).

Among the numerous aspects of DECOLONIZATION (mostly political and economic) studied during the half-century (Kirk-Greene, 2001), some highlights in the literature have been related to key features of economic globalization (Poli, 2010) or processes of acculturation (Weedon (2012). 

South America and Africa...

Global market                                                                                              Modern game

In many team sports there is now a global market for the buying and selling of players. Footballers (male and female), and players of rugby, baseball, ice-hockey and basketball are regularly traded for large sums of money. Elite migrants such as these often command high salaries. National immigration and employment legislation is designed in part to facilitate transfers and to enable top players to be mobile.

The migration of professional footballers is fundamental to the modern game, with the best athletes from the poorerperipheral leagues flowing to world football’s rich core in England, Italy, Germany, Spain and France.

The issue of migration in European sport is set against the background of a process of globalisation from which the sport sector is not exempt. Globalisation and the convergence of sporting nations in terms both of travel times (sea, rail and air) and of our perceptions have thrown up a whole range of new issues concerning migration flows in sport.

In European professional football, over seven in every one hundred players migrating to Europe for the first time are less than 18 years!! while over 33 are less than 21. There are currently over 400 professional players who migrated to an European country as minors.

Transfers of young and very young (under 15) players are therefore a reality in the sport, as reflected in the example of one of the best players at present, Lionel Messi, who was only 10 when he arrived at FC Barcelona. Alongside that extraordinary success story, there are no statistics to show the failure rate among under-16s or, still less, the percentage of unhappy experiences, including violations of children’s rights, human rights and sports ethics. 

In football, migration of players accelerated with the 1995 Bosman ruling of the European Court of Justice, which removed restrictions on the number of players originating from European countries that could be recruited by European clubs,

This was later extended to other origin countries (and sports) by the Malaja, Kolpak and Simutenkov cases and the 2000 Cotonou agreement. In football today, foreign players account for over a third of the total in the 36 European championships, where it can be said that the more successful a championship is the more likely it is to attract players who are not nationals of the country they currently play in.

According to the 2010 Demographic Study of Footballers in Europe, players who left the country they grew up in because of their football careers were aged 22.2 years on average when they did so; thereby demonstrating that international recruitment by clubs in the most successful leagues is geared more towards young players.

           

 

Source: Demographic Study of Footballers in Europe, PFPO, 2010

 

Moreover, it should be noted that, of the ten countries which export the youngest players to Europe, six are in Africa, two are in Europe themselves and two are in other continents.

Africa is therefore very important in football, alongside with Brazil and Argentina.

By way of example, it is not always possible to predict where these young African footballers will end up… as, for example,  the three leading countries of origin of foreign players in the Finnish first division in 2010 were Zambia, Brazil and Nigeria in that order.

Interestingly, the data suggests that ‘Almost 80% of Ghanaians who migrated in 2010 are midfielders or forwards. Generally speaking, a greater part of international flows concern players in these positions (63.5%)

It is well known that international migration may affect human capital in origin countries in both positive and negative ways. Human traficking in football takes place when one or more of the following abuses are ascertained:

-Inconclusive trials abroad and withdrawal

-Joining of a club or training centre abroad and unilateral breaking of contract

-Keeping player in an illegal situation

-Exclusive control of a football player’s professional mobility (i.e. Unfair contracts binding a player to his agent)

-Work exploitation (i.e. non.-respect of salary agreements)

We have another big term...

Neo colonialism

It can be defined as the exploitation of poor countries by rich ones and transnational companies. Football economy is characterised by a strong level of financial discrepancies among countries and leagues. This polarisation favours unequal power relationships and different forms of exploitation:

 

1.Exploitation of African footballers vulnerability by clubs and intermediaries

2.Exploitation of African clubs by other clubs via the recruitment of players without compensation

3.Exploitation of African elites of players and national teams for economic and political reasons

4.Exploitation of African elites of funds provided among others by football governing bodies to the detriment of the local development of football

 

This data is from 2012 and was retrieved from two different websites containing information about the clubs and young athletes in Portugal. Here we have the number of young athletes that are playing in clubs in the two main leagues in Portugal. We can also see the amount of national vs foreign players playing in those clubs from the age of 13.Note that the three major football clubs in Portugal account for more than 43% of the foreign players playing here.

 Methods

 

Question: How do they perceive themselves and others in this process of acculturation?

This research examines footballs’ role to various ex-colonial communities in diverse locations

Sociocultural relationship

100 youth participants – 14-18 years of age

1st Phase Portugal,

2nd Phase Netherlands/Belgium

3rd Phase France

 

The project examines these questions using quantitative and qualitative methods of social research. This analysis is based on a multi-methods approach that includes:

1. semi-structured interview,
2. retrospective interview,
3. questionnaires (measuring aspirations, intrinsic motivation and self-determination), and,
4. participant observational data (school achievement, local residence, peer relationships).

 Final Remarks

 

Europe’s sports and institutional sector is therefore faced with a set of issues where it is necessary, first of all, to determine both the responsibilities of all concerned and the scale of the problem so that a range of measures can be implemented to protect clubs, young sportspeople and their families.

The sports movement and governments can agree on taking the most effective measures possible against the abuses which come with migration flows in different sports. The interdisciplinary nature of the issue, as migration in sport concerns not only the sporting authorities but also those responsible for migration and child protection.

The measures to be considered therefore involve the sports movement and sports policies, as well as development aid policies, migration policies and childhood protection.

Márcio Domingues