Chelsea the Premier dirty old man

They are under-age boys, young and impressionable. They are wooed by the flattery, the glamour, and the money. This is football pedophilia.

Chelsea may turn out to be just the first in a long-line of Premier League clubs that are sanctioned over illegal approaches to under-age players, with claims also out against Man Utd and cross-city rivals Man City.

And now that Crewe Alexander have also reported an as-yet unname Premier League club for an illegal approach to a 15 year-old in their Academy, it can no longer be dismissed as simply French sour grapes.

Whether CAS confirms that the approaches are illegal or not does not diminish the unsavoury nature of this recruitment tactic: large powerful and wealthy clubs taking advantage of the fact that these players cannot, by law, sign contracts, to entice them away from home.

Gordon Taylor, the head of the PFA, has yet again been a voice of reason calling for a ban on the transfer of players under the age of 18. Obviously, Taylor’s main priority is the players’ welfare – it is interesting to note that France also imposes educational requirements on clubs which do not extend outside their national borders – and clearly sees this behaviour as exploitation.

But there are serious repercussions for the clubs involved as well. They invest in their academies, develop local talent and rightly expect to get some return on that investment, be it on the pitch or by selling on the player. Many, such as Crewe, would rely on this valuable source of income as well as a considerable source of satisfaction. In the cases raised so far, this investment has simply walked out the door with little to no compensation.

Let’s make no bones about this, this is simply to get players for next-to-nothing. A club like Chelsea could “pay the expenses” of a hundred 16 year-olds in the hope that one or two makes it to the big time and still have saved a considerable over waiting until they had proved themselves. A situation not helped by UEFA’s ruling that a player who has spent 3 years with a club before they turn 21 is considered a “home-grown” player.

In the case of Manchester City, who spent 127 million pounds in the summer transfer window, it seems an obscene course of action.

The criticism that too many Premier League clubs try and buy success by bringing in “big money signings” is nothing new. We’ve become used to it, desensitised to first elevens with no home-grown players. That it now seems to be filtering down to youth policies will hopefully give UEFA the kick it so badly needs.

The sanctions against Chelsea are a good start; removing the “home-grown” rule for foreign players should be next. But ultimately, the only way to combat this trade in young boys is to ban it.