In recent times too many young players are burdened with excessive hype. ‘The New Messi’ is one of the mass media’s favourite monikers bestowed upon young talented kids, who appear in a multitude of YouTube videos showing off various skills and running rings around their much less able peers.

The clamour to find ‘The Next Messi’ has driven clubs across Europe to expand their scouting networks far and wide to search extensively beyond their traditional boundaries. Many of European football’s top teams have partnerships with clubs in South America and the Far East in order to use their local expertise to spot these young players before their domestic rivals.

This practise has led to some clubs taking risks and breaking FIFA regulations governing the international transfer and registrations of minors.

Transfer Bans Are Good News For Football

Under FIFA’s rules the international transfer of players is only permitted if the player is over the age of 18.

The exceptions are:

If the player’s parents move to the country in which the new club is located for reasons not linked to football.

The transfer takes place within the territory of the European Union (EU) or European Economic Area (EEA) and the player is aged between 16 and 18.

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.

FC Barcelona were the first to be sanctioned by FIFA for the breach of its rules in 2014, having been found to have signed 10 players between 2009 and 2013 who were under the age of 18 and proven not to fit with the terms of exception.

In recent weeks, Real Madrid and Atlético Madrid were handed transfer bans by FIFA for similar offences relating to under- 18 footballers in their academy systems.

To give FIFA their dues, it is impressive that they have had confidence in their convictions, upheld their regulations, and chosen to take on the big beasts rather than make an example of smaller clubs. FIFA these days are more widely known around the globe for their alleged ‘brown envelope’ culture than being a bastion of ‘to the letter’ rule enforcement.

The slow transition of power from the world’s governing body to clubs has been in effect for many years, leading to confidence within clubs to act outside the law. There must be many examples of a family ‘choosing’ to leave the African, Asian or South American continents to move to a European city, where the parents happen to find themselves a flat, fortunately stumble across work with a major club in their match-day canteens etc., and even more fortunately, their son gets spotted by the same local professional club and joins with their academy.

Bizarrely, new Real Madrid manager Zinedine Zidane’s sons have been caught up in Los Blancos’ transfer ban story as it is alleged that they are not qualified to play for the Juvenil teams, despite their father having a legitimate career in Spain.

In September 2015, Barcelona issued a statement saying that they had released five players from their youth set up.

“The measure has been taken with regards to these players due to FIFA’s position which, in their understanding, does not allow the players to train, play or live at the club’s facilities. FC Barcelona did not renew the licences of the players so that it could not be interpreted that a FIFA rule was not being adhered to. As such, FC Barcelona has taken measures that it considers appropriate, respecting to the full the personal situations of each of those affected. The players have been kept informed at all times of the process that has led to the ending of their relationship with the club.”

The obvious trauma this must cause a boy in his early teens must be considered in determining on whether clubs are right to continue with their flouting of the rules. These families uproot their entire lives and potentially move thousands of miles in the hope that their son’s dreams will come true. A sad fact is that roughly 90% of those in academies at the ages of 14-16 do not make it as a professional.

This rejection must be excruciatingly difficult to process and the impact on a teenager being told that they are not good enough to fulfil their life ambition and dream career must be a terrible blow; more so if the family must then make the choice to stay and create a life for themselves in their adopted country or return home.

There are many other reasons why the practice of importing young foreign kids into club academies is immoral and improper. A basic football argument is that clubs should ultimately have a desire to promote youth indigenous to that country and investing millions into academy systems that do little to promote the best local talent is unpalatable to many fans and observers.

FIFA is taking the right moral and ethical stance by imposing transfer bans on clubs that break their rules. By imposing a ban on FC Barcelona, FIFA showed that it would stand up to the big boys and put its metaphorical foot down. This warning was not heeded by others and as such Real Madrid and Atlético Madrid in Spain are facing the same punishments. Many other clubs around Europe may now be sitting up and taking notice. Hopefully this will lead to a culture of abiding by the laws; but in the search to find ‘The Next Messi’, all appears to be fair in love and war.