Of course the even bigger problem is what happens to the kids if they don't progress. Most clubs are not spending the money to return them to their country. They can easily become teenage homeless children.
In Spain, plenty eke out a living by performing soccer tricks on the street: Guess some of them were such kids.
The Ledermans make a compelling argument in some regards, but not when they state things like this: "It’s not like my son is alone in Barcelona, we had no idea there would be a rule to stop him coming [to play for the club]. We don’t know if Barça knew." I just don't think a defense of claiming ignorance (of FIFA rules) is going to hold up too well in court. And of course Barça knew -- can he really be serious? This wasn't exactly secret information. Hell, the average BigSoccer poster knew about it. Furthermore, the rule had been put into place years before the Ledermans moved there. Sounds to me like they simply failed to do their research before making such a life-changing decision. I suppose there's also the possibility that Barcelona agreed to accept their son without informing them it was technically illegal. And if that's the case then the family should be directing more of their frustration towards the club.
This sort of fits everything together. Barca never informed them and are now using them to further their agenda of grabbing tons of young players knowing one or two a year will pan out.
I believe in some of the articles about this situation the Ledermans are quoted as saying that either Barcelona people or whatever agent was helping them with the paperwork told them about the rule but that "no one cares about it." So claiming Barcelona didn't know isn't entirely accurate. More like knew but didn't expect it to be enforced.
not specifically the ledermans. but others seemed to have been told to ignore the rule (either by barca or their outpost clubs). i assume the ledermans were told the same. they're a smart, intelligent family, so i'm not sure they can argue ignorance on their part or deception on barca's. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/01/s...ules-sidelines-young-players-abroad.html?_r=1 Cintia Cuperman, a doctor from Miami, took her two sons to Spain in 2013. One of them, Nico, did well in tryouts and was accepted into Barcelona’s Escola program, which is a local outpost of the club’s soccer schools. Nico excelled while at Escola and joined another local club, where he received a registration card and began playing in games. In February, after Barcelona’s appeal of its sanctions was denied, Nico’s card was taken away. “Suddenly I was getting requests from the club for 10 different kinds of documentation and proof of a job for me and all types of things,” Cuperman said. “I was stunned. When we first registered, and I saw the lines on the forms asking for those things, the guys at the club told me, ‘Put down anything — no one cares.’ ”
Probably just hooked on the Barca koolaid. Seen it many times around youth club teams with parents swallowing everything a team or coach says. They want to believe so they do believe.
IDK, there seems to be a lot of grey area in the FIFA statutes. Sure, it's a bad thing if Barca gives a young Argentinian player's dad a job. However, an immigrant family should have a right to put their kids in the best local club without issues. So what's the bright line here? What easily followed rule can we set here?
Now FIFA slaps Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid with transfer bans for breaking rules over the transfer of minors: http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/35313998
Here's an interesting story from a few months ago on a Costa Rican kid that got bounced from Barcelona like Lederman did. Apparently his father and Lederman's dad have teamed up to start a movement that opposes FIFA's Article 19: Nanno's dad, Mark, and Ben's dad have teamed up to start a movement to change the FIFA rule. The website is called www.FairPlay4Kids.org. After a very successful hashtag campaign started by Nanno (#LetNannoPlay), the parents decided to continue the momentum and push forward. The website allows affected children the opportunity to get noticed and voice their stories. "Our only hope is that this violation of children's rights is addressed by FIFA," said Lugo. "Benching innocent children is not fair play at all," he added. https://www.slantnews.com/story/201...-rican-soccer-player-takes-on-fifa-nanno-lugo
They seemingly understand why the rule is in place: http://fairplay4kids.org/fifa-issue/ "The rule was established by FIFA to prevent child exploitation and child trafficking for footballing reasons." They should have stopped there. Yes, the rule means that more well-off (by global standards) children can't go to Barca or Bayern whenever they want. I'm sorry. I can't imagine their campaign gaining any traction. FIFA represents the whole soccer world. Do we think AfFrican, Asian, South American, etc. federations want the European academies to be able to simply gobble up all the kids of any age they can get their hands on? Of course not. Heck, what would that do to soccer in the US as our development programs grow?
However, I can see this campaign getting legal traction. If a family wants to move to a different country all on their own with no help from a club then they should certainly have the legal right to let their children play.
But I would expect them to prove they have the means to support themselves, which the Ledermans were struggling with. I think they finally got work permits, but it's gonna put a strain on a family if they can't really afford to be there for long, all banking on junior making it big in the future.
I just noticed that Lederman joined U.S. Soccer's residency program in Bradenton last month: http://www.socceramerica.com/article/67338/us-u-17-boys-open-new-residency-program-with-32.html
And I don't think FIFA wants to be in the business of analyzing all those youth players saying they have the financial, social and educational support system to be an exception to the FIFA's youth rules.
I just don't see it getting legal traction because the minor status of players, how few it would cover who would be able to move and earn a good living with so many immigration limitations and the fact that soccer development is not a human right. There may be some very limited exception if they can prove that their parent have a supporting job not through a club but that's not who they are trying to protect. They are trying to protect the 98% of the players who are too poor and the family is putting their entire faith in the youth player becoming a professional.
Kind of a lame website. Please help all these poor kids who can't play soccer at large European Academies and their parents won't be subsidized by the large financial clubs. Woe is me. For only 39 cents a day please help.
I've searched a bit on this forum and all over the net but can't find anything. Any news on this kid? Anything I read of him is a year old and how he's been removed from Barcelona. Is the kid still looked at highly? Is he playing in any of our youth national teams? I figured a kid that was moving up the ranks with Barcelona would be a stud over here in the states.
There's a misconception that just because a kid is at a big academy in Europe that he's better than domestic prospects. I mean...........he was really young at Barcelona. How good a player is at 12 isn't particularly relevant when they're 15-16. He's a 2000, right? I'm not even sure he's at Bradenton full-time with the U17s. Last I knew he was with the IMG academy in Bradenton, which is a different thing altogether. Maybe he's been injured or something, because its been a while since I've seen him on any rosters.
Lederman was in residency in the spring. http://www.ussoccer.com/stories/201...2-player-u17-mnt-2016-spring-residency-roster They just went in for the fall about 2 weeks ago. (three 2001s that my son knows were added, but no roster seen yet)