Reflecting the great speed at which globalization is modernizing our world, the latter part of the twentieth century, and the beginning of the twenty-first century, has seen an ever increasing level of participation of talented players competing in leagues away from their home countries. The top scorer in the 2006 world cup, Luca Toni of Italy, plays today for Bayern Munchen in the Bundes League of Germany, as Michael Balack of Germany competes in the British Premier League for Chelsea, while the ever popular David Beckham of England has left his country to finish his career in the United States. The examples are endless, but by far the most telling study of this phenomenon is demonstrated by the exodus of talent from third world nations, to the football consuming nations of Europe. As before mentioned, in the year 2000, 780 Africans were competing in the top leagues of Europe. What was not mentioned was that this number was up 100% from five years prior (Wilson, 43). On the face of it, a student of pure economics would say that this rapid increase is clear evidence of globalization at its best: a raw resource is taken from a foreign land and being utilized in the most productive manner with increasing efficiency in another. Unfortunately, like many economic theories, this example of globalization seems to be looking over some painful market failures.
One individual has been quoted as saying, “I find it unhealthy, if not despicable, for rich clubs to send scouts shopping in Africa to 'buy' the most promising players there, Europe's leading clubs conduct themselves increasingly as neo-colonialists who don't give a damn about heritage and culture, but engage in social and economic rape” (Wilson 43). These words are not the words of some Marxist football fan, they are the words of the most important man in football, Sepp Blatter, the current president of FIFA. What the president is referencing here is the recruiting practices of European clubs that is not entirely unlike the strip mining of raw materials that other multinational corporations partake in on the same continent.
This method of recruitment was put in practice long before Blatter took the reigns of the FIFA. The neo-colonial rapists actually got their start as colonial rapists in the earlier half of the twentieth century. Before the African independence movements, the imperial powers recognized their African colonies as a splendid natural resource pool for football talent. As far back as the 1932 at the inception of the French Football League, owners and managers drew upon their colonial ties stripping players out of Northern Africa for utilization in the newly formed league. By 1938 there were more than 140 players from North Africa competing in the two divisions of the league (Out of Africa 444). The benefits of this imperialism had implications far beyond club football. In the all-important international competitions, France has been aided by the policy of Gallicalisation, which granted citizenship to individuals who have successfully assimilated into the French culture. The effects can be felt as far back as the forties when the nation had significant success in international competition under the leadership of Larbi Ben Barack, a French citizen of Moroccan birth (Out of Africa 444). Also, as recently as 2000 and 2006 Zinidane Zidan, a French citizen of Algerian delivered a Championship in the 2000 competition World Cup Competition and earned the golden ball in France’s world cup run in’06.
The strength of colonial ties determining the destination of African footballers is evidenced by participation in the leagues of other imperial nations including England, Belgium, Spain, and Portugal. It was the Portuguese and Belgians, the masters of colonial exploitation as slave traders, who developed the modern post-colonial method of recruiting African players. Teams in these leagues would set up formal ties with teams in their African territories to farm talent out of. The best and brightest of the players performing in African nations would be brought up to the status of European footballers through the Portuguese and Belgian leagues. It was here that they would gain exposure and then be sold off to more prominent leagues in Europe, primarily at the profit of the agents and scouting clubs involved (Out of Africa 446).
It is this practice of modern slave trading, that Blatter is railing so hard against today. With the decolonization of Africa, a system of neo-colonial influence has persisted as the formal ties between European clubs and African organizations have remained strong despite the dissolving of the colonial ties. The result is the ruling power still has its grasp tightly around the African game. In fact, after decolonization the system has become more entrenched and strong as the governments of most of the sovereign African nations are to corrupt to create a football infrastructure and their economies are to weak to support a market for the finished goods, a quality football league. They simply do not have the money to pay the types of salaries that are being paid to premier players in the developed nations of Europe. In the globalized world, this means the mass exportation of the talent from Africa into the receptive market, Europe (Out of Africa 448).
It was the decolonization and subsequent intrusion of the neo-colonist that accelerated this practice to the levels we see today. In the early nineteen seventies the Brazilian FIFA president João Havelange was elected to the position of FIFA president. As a citizen of a developing nation, one of Havelange’s top missions was to globalize the game with significant political, financial, and infrastructure support to the third world (World Football 6). A bright and noble proposition, this strategy resulted in the allocation of more spots for African nations starting in the 1982 world cup as well as the development of a Under 20 and Under 17 world championship in 1977 and 1982. It was in these U-20 and U-17 games where African nations would flex their muscle, and show that many of their young and talented players were ready for the top leagues. This reinvigorated the demand for young African players, pushing unscrupulous agents and scouts rushed to the continent looking for the next generation of great undiscovered talent. (Out of Africa 447).
In their hunt for undiscovered talent agents go into nations like Liberia, Ghana and the Ivory Coast and set up training schools. Parents pay hefty sums in hope that their suns will make it to the top leagues of Europe. Many players who pay this sum do go to Europe with guaranteed showings in club try-outs. The only problem is that most governments in the European Union are not keen on handing out visas to every African who says he is going to come be a professional soccer player. The result is these prospects are smuggled illegally into the EU for their tryouts. Last year, 34 children from the Cote d’Ivore were found in a safe house in Mali and were preparing for illegal escort to Europe where they would be delivered to different showings for European teams. They were but a small fraction of the five thousand hopeful young players that leave the Ivory Coast this year in hope of a place in one of the feeder clubs in France or Belgium (Wilson, 44).
The problem created is that for every Didier Drogba or Michael Essien that makes it to the top leagues, there are hundreds and thousands of others who do not pan out. What happens to these young players that fall short is that they are left stranded in Europe as the agents that promised them a brighter future cut their losses and abandon them with no way of contacting their families at home. They are then forced to do what they may to survive, often resorting to illegal activity, eventually becoming a burden on the society, all the while perpetuating a pervasive racism that exists in Europe (Wilson, 44). By working through agents and scouts who are not necessarily a part of any one organization, the European clubs are able to divert responsibility for this problem and take the high side of the issue saying they are simply giving players from developing nations a chance, but, in a globalized world, it is the consumer who is ultimately to blame for the methods in which they consume. The top clubs need to stop turning a blind eye to this issue and take productive steps to developing talent within the continent in sustainable and respectable ways.
Today as communication, global trade, and travel flatten the world at an increasingly rapid pace, two things can happen to African football under the guidance of FIFA. The system could continue within the colonial and neo-colonial structures, bringing great wealth and glory to a few gifted players, agents, and clubs OR we could witness the reorganization and development of African soccer, with top players and clubs competing on African soccer with consumption fueled by the global love of beautiful play, delivered through a globalized media and travel infrastructure. Only the latter offers the opportunity for the development of nations, markets, and people. Only the latter allows future African footballers to develop at home. For this to happen, FIFA needs to organize all the clubs of Europe around this initiative. They must see that simply stripping the best and brightest from Africa will perpetuate the poverty of the game on that continent, and leave their leagues dried up of talent and without a market. With proper care and guidance under the FIFA organization and with buy in from the clubs of Europe there is a chance that these nations can develop stronger leagues and create a new market for world football where once there was none. With strong leagues and markets comes more and more strong players for all the leagues of the world, but until then Africa deserves a chance at owning a piece of the game they love so much.