Abdou Mdegue stands out as one of the key figures in Tenerife football who has championed diversity on the Island. After being forced to retire from football due to a knee injury, he wasted no time in establishing Cayor Foot, a football academy dedicated to supporting children of African descent. Abdou arrived in the Canary Islands at the age of 15 with the aspiration to one day assist those most in need and introduce them to Tenerife football. With the indispensable support of the Adeje City Council, Abdou successfully turned his dream into reality by founding a football association in his native town in Senegal, Meche, which is located 200 km from Dakar. Abdou’s long-term vision is to establish a training school for players, but for now, his focus is on providing medical, humanitarian, and sports aid. He sheds light on a new reality that Canarian football is facing: the migrants. These children endure, as he describes, the “neglect” of federations and FIFA as they are excluded from professional teams. This highlights the evolving landscape of football and the prevailing commercial outlook.
Abdou supports 50 children through his association in Adeje. The majority of them are Senegalese, with two Nigerian exceptions. “They are all exceptional children, well-mannered, and passionate about football,” he remarks. Some of them are unaccompanied migrant minors. These youngsters under the age of 18 typically arrive on canoes or boats, separated from their parents and lacking the supervision of an adult. According to Spanish Immigration Law, the responsibility of minors upon setting foot on the Canary Islands falls under the Government of the Canary Islands. They are accommodated in juvenile centers, where they coexist with others who often struggle with behavioural or adjustment issues within their families or guardians.
Abdou exposes the plight of these children within Tenerife football. He highlights the fact that many of them may never have the opportunity to train with clubs like Tenerife or Las Palmas. The perils faced during their journey, such as losing their documentation, prevent them from being identified and subsequently obtaining a residence permit. This permit is crucial for registration with professional clubs. Without it, they are unable to wear the colours of the top clubs in the Canary Islands until they reach legal adulthood. Abdou laments, “Spain receives minors from boats, but in many ways, they are not given the chance to be treated like any other child. They are deprived of the chance to compete against the best teams in the Canary Islands, which restricts their potential.” He questions the fairness of the situation, emphasizing the need for equal rights. Abdou, who is a parent himself, expresses the joy of watching children play and believes that these youngsters, despite their struggles, will never get the opportunity to represent the top team in Tenerife due to their origins. He questions why such disparities exist in Spain, a country that prides itself on being part of the first world. Abdou highlights how this issue also impacts the sports structures in the Canary Islands. “By not receiving training in clubs with superior sports infrastructure that matches their level and abilities, their talents are not honed as they should, resulting in the loss of potential future stars,” he specifies. He notes that football has become a profit-driven industry: “The focus has shifted away from the most important aspects like the enjoyment and instilling values in minors. That has taken a back seat.”
FIFA and underage players
The Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Players serve as the comprehensive guidelines governing footballers across all divisions. These rules, established by FIFA, the supreme authority in world football, outline that “if a minor is recognized by state authorities as a vulnerable individual, they may only be registered by a strictly amateur club” in Article 19, point D. Furthermore, Article 25 stipulates that an amateur club is defined as one that does not have players classified as professionals (a professional club being one that has current or recent employment contracts with players within the last 3 years). This means that vulnerable minors lacking a residence permit, for the reasons mentioned earlier, are ineligible for recruitment and consequently, until they come of age, they cannot be part of a professional club. In essence, they are barred from reaching the highest echelons of youth football in the Canary Islands. Under no circumstances are they able to do so.
Giover Alegre Arauco serves as the vice-secretary general of the FIFT (Inter-island Football Federation of Tenerife). Alegre elaborates that “professional football clubs in the Canary Islands require the necessary documentation to safeguard the minor, and without a residence permit, they are unable to provide that assurance.” The deputy secretary clarifies that “amateur football differs from professional football and is governed by distinct laws. It has retained its fundamental essence in the fan base.” Such measures are designed to regulate competition to prevent the “big fish” from overwhelming the “small fish”: “FIFA acknowledges that professional clubs possess significantly more resources than amateur clubs, and in the case of underage migrants, allowing these clubs an open mandate to sign all players could significantly disrupt competitions,” he asserts.
In recent years, FIFA has prioritised the protection of minors. Rules have been introduced to safeguard the welfare and development of minors while curbing the influence of third parties who often seek to profit from their education. Given the migratory crisis that the Canary Islands have faced in recent months, the islands are in a unique situation. “The protection of these minors falls under the responsibility of the Government of the Canary Islands rather than the Spanish Government. The Spanish federation felt it was necessary to communicate the situation in the Autonomous Community to FIFA regarding the influx of migrants. The objective was to redefine terms and review the treatment of vulnerable minors to establish new regulations,” he explains.
