Fifa’s ‘lobola’ plans make a lot of sense

So Sepp Blatter and company have finally decided to stop worrying about crime statistics in South Africa and do their job as governors of the game.

About time, too.

Last week’s bolt from the blue may have left Chelsea feeling well, slightly blue, but it was a long overdue stamping out of one of football’s dark arts.

How many times have we heard major teams saying they have “discovered” the next Pele or the next Ronaldo on an overseas tour?

Regardless of how long that youngster has been nurtured by his home-town club, the bright lights of Europe — plus significant backhanded payments to wide-eyed parents — are too irresistible for impressionable young hopefuls.

Call it footballing lobola, if you will, but clubs need to have the comfort of knowing that their efforts are not going to waste.

Pinching young starlets is a subtle crime, borne out of the need to save money in an increasingly expensive market. Good players these days can cost £20 million. Very good players like Xabi Alonso command fees touching 30 million, while truly precocious talents cost amounts that could wipe off a sizeable chunk of Africa’s debt to the First World.

So, really, any scout who can spot a would-be superstar before anyone else is worth his weight in gold. And all the clubs are at it.
Chelsea just happened to be challenged by a club that had had enough.

Yet others like Manchester United pinch youngsters, put them into their feeder clubs and hope they rack up enough caps for their countries to get a work permit.

It is daylight robbery and further stretches the gap between the rich and the poor.

Already, Manchester City have furnished Stamford Bridge with a £10 million bill for Daniel Sturridge, claiming that they trained him up and then the Blues lured him away.

Quite how many more such “claims” will surface in the next few months is not certain, but many little clubs in Africa, South America and even Europe may see this as an opportunity to cash in on Fifa’s belated common sense.

If you have identified a talent from scratch, nurtured him, schooled him and developed a possible star of the future, the last thing you need is a bigwig to pull the wool over your precious cargo and whisk it away for little more than a cheap bottle of bubbly bought at the corner shop.

It leaves a bitter taste in the mouth and re-enhances the chasm that exists between the big boys and the rest in football.

Fifa’s proposed ban on transfers involving players under 18 is a fantastic move, one which will at least see clubs rewarded for their time and money invested in young players.

Much like a bride in African culture, the loss of a promising player is keenly felt by any club, never mind the minnows that are constantly on the brink of going under.

But the soft landing provided by a decent transfer fee can often save a club from administration. So, as it pains a family to lose a daughter, the soothing sound of crisp notes being exchanged will soon wipe the tears away.

And if the small clubs can be even half as demanding as some prospective in-laws can be, the wealth of world football will spread like wild-fire.