Fifa Cracks Down on Child Transfers

For months, the Uefa president, Michel Platini, and his Fifa counterpart, Sepp Blatter, have been battling to prove their commitment to cracking down on the international trade in young footballers. Blatter said at the Fifa congress in the Bahamas this year: "It is our duty to the youth of the world to protect young players. We must do it together. Stop the slavery of these young players!"

Fifa has discovered that the market for the transfer of minors amounts to 500,000 children moving clubs every year. The world governing body was so shocked at the scale of the problem that it has taken steps to enforce its own rules rather than wait for the formal complaints of clubs. Proposals were voted through at its congress in May approving the setting up of a committee to scrutinize every international transfer for players aged under 18 years old.

The aim is to ensure Article 19 of the Fifa regulations is not being infringed. Jérôme Valcke, Fifa's general secretary, told the Guardian: "This is the chance to look at the offer a club is making to a family and to see if it is linked or indirectly linked to football and the value of the offer to the family."

As the legal pendulum has swung back to the clubs after a period when players appeared in the ascendant, Platini has continued to push for an outright ban on all transfers involving players under 18. But the European Union is opposed as the idea directly cuts across principles regarding the free movement of labor. As such, Fifa has tended towards a more pragmatic approach.