Football Confidential

I just cracked a copy of Football Confidential (2000), an investigative documentary book from the BBC... "a journey through the underbelly of our (the UK's) national game covering the period when it transmuted from a mere spectator sport into an entertainment industry" (p6).

This is gonna be good. Here's a bit from chapter 10:
Soccer Slaves
The young players dumped on the streets by ruthless agents

Living in an abandoned bus, cold and hungry, wasn't exactly Timi had in mind when he was promised a glittering career in European football.

An engaging and articulate young man, he showed talent from the time he first kicked a ball as a seven-year-old on the streets of Lagos, the Nigerian capital. 'When I was young I always ed I'd play in Europe, especially in Germany or England," he says. "My father loved football. He encouraged me to play and, when I had the opportunity to go to Europe to further my career, he gave me the finance to go there.'

Timi (his full name is Adewusi Olurotimi) was 17 when a footballing friend put him in touch with an agent. 'The agent made me a lot of promises before I left Nigeria; and because I was a teenager I had to sign lots of papers for my parents saying that he was going to take care of me and find me a club. He said that if I came to Europe I would live better than in Nigeria, play football, be happy, gain a lot of money and play in a big club. I believed him.'

What happened next was just one example of a football scandal that is now being investigated at the highest levels of the United Nations. It is a story that stretches from the slums of Rio to the shanty towns of Soweto; a seedy, frightening saga of human trafficking and exploitation that borders on slavery. How could it happen at the dawn of the twenty-first century is testimony to the greed and opportunism of much of the modern game.

The Power of the Game

I just came across a reference to a recent Michael Apted documentary, The Power of the Game, where he follows six stories that track the futbol phenomenon, leading up to the 2006 World Cup. One chapter deals with the "slave trade" of young African players, another addresses the entrenched racism around football in Europe, another is about the repression facing Iranian women in football... Gotta put this on my imminent film list.

Apted's done a bunch of Hollywood feature films as well, but he's probably best known for his 7 Up documentary series, an episodic film that explored the contours of social class and began in 1963 while Apted was working as a researcher for Granada Television. He helped recruit a group of 14 seven-year-old British school children to discuss their lives and dreams. Every 7 years, Apted follows up with the original group, or those that agree to continue on. The most recent production, "49 Up," was released in 2005.