Dean Huijsen He was barely six years old when, after landing at Spain to live with his family, he joins the ranks of United Coast CF. In this modest club Marbella He took his first steps as a footballer until he became a football star. Real Madrid and the national teambut now it is much more complicated for this type of teams to train the players of the future.
Article 19 of FIFA Player Status and Transfer Regulations complicates everything. This regulation, designed to avoid treating young talents like a commodity, also has a dark side which slows down the training of players.
From now on, if a foreign minor arrives for the first time in Spain and wants to join any grassroots club must succeed an endless bureaucratic process which drives even the most patient to despair. Children, with the sole desire to play football, who end up taking another path due to the impossibility of realizing their dream.
Paperwork and federations
The problem is clear and affects thousands of children in Spanish grassroots football. A little boy arrives in Spain from another country and decides to join a club to play in the federation. However, he soon encounters his first obstacle.
Clubs happily accept any young talent, but they cannot play official matches until they have gone through the bureaucratic process. Parents’ paychecks, rent or mortgage, passports… Organizations ask for all kinds of documents to make sure everything is in order.
Once parents can provide all the required documents – not without reluctance on many occasions – the second obstacle appears, that of fight against time.
The newspapers first arrive at the regional federation in service, then if they are in order, they are taken to the RFEF, and if everything goes as planned then they end up in the federation of origin of the child in question. All this so that FIFA, the last person responsible for this rule will give their OK to the registration.
The process, already complex in itself, becomes a never-ending procedure. Waiting times of several days, weeks, months and even a few years. “Some children get tired of waiting and end up stopping football,” say some of the clubs concerned.
Tired of waiting
The problem is not so much the rule as the slowness in implementing the required procedures. There are children who have not yet been able to make their debut since their arrival at a club at the start of this season, and it has already been several months of waiting.
The situation of these young talents is delicate. They are still part of a club, they train every week with the rest of their teammates and they are one more in the group. However, when the weekend comes, they cannot play official competitions as it would mean a heavy fine for their club.
They won’t play until their case is solvedand it’s something that little ones have difficulty understanding and which exasperates parents. Clubs, like players, are victims of this bureaucratic logjam.
The protest is ready
Faced with this blockage of grassroots football which undoubtedly affects the elite football of the future, several clubs in the Costa del Sol They decided to raise their voice. Up to 17 clubs in Marbella, including United Coast FC where he was “born” in football terms Dean Huijsen, They came together to denounce this context.
The problem affects all ages. From six year olds to 18 year olds. Many of them registered with their respective clubs last August and, already in December, they have not yet been able to make their debut in official competition.
“After six or seven weeks, they get bored because they don’t want to wait,” say these clubs who have united to denounce the situation.
Between these 17 clubs they accumulate 300 tokens locked always since August. Around 300 players born abroad who wanted to play in the federation for the first time Spain but they have not yet been able to do so due to this bureaucratic procedure.
From this union of teams created to request an emergency solution, it is estimated that in the province of Malaga there could be around 2,000 pending cases, and in Andalusia around 10,000 or 12,000 children without playing.
But the problem is national. It was in Andalusia that they raised their voices, but this is happening throughout the national territory. Or in almost everything, because in the Community of Madrid and the Balearic Islands The territorial federations grant a precautionary measure when the files are presented. Then the kids can play while the bureaucracy is sorted out.
Now, these clubs are considering the possibility of stopping competitions if everything remains the same over time. They already staged a sit-in a few days ago, but they’re ready to go all the way.
Children discriminated against
Among these clubs which are now coming together to publicly denounce the situation, they consider that the FIFA standard discriminates against young players because of their origin.
“It cannot be that a child of Denmark, Colombia, Norway or Cyprus do not have the same opportunities to play as their teammates,” they say.
If everything remains the same and resolution times are not accelerated, clubs will make drastic decisions after the break. Christmas. The Andalusian Federation, for example, has already been notified of this, but it is possible that this movement will spread to other regions of Spain.
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