Spain: Families of foreign children were deceived by false promises to turn them into elite footballers

Spanish police crack down on conspiracy fraud relatives of minors and young foreigners, mostly Brazilians, from whom they demanded large sums of money with false promise make them elite professional footballers.

As the police said on Tuesday, fraudulent families There are seventy of them who came to pay the initial 5,000 euros and 1,500 to 1,700 a month with the promise of participation in sports competitions, accommodation, maintenance, registration for studies and procedures for obtaining a residence permit, which were never received.

The conspiracy was uncovered in two parallel investigations in the first quarter of this year and led to the arrest of eleven people and two other school clubs under investigation as alleged members of both organizations. football junior and senior categories of the city of Granada, in the south Spain.

One of the clubs hosted about 30 young foreigners aged between 16 and 23 of various origins, although there are more Brazilians, and the other about 40, also mostly from Brazil.

This is how a scam was discovered in Spain

The investigation began with a complaint from the player and his coach, who stated that they were signed in their country by one of these schools to participate in sport competitions officers.

The family paid the €5,000 demanded by those in charge of the club, but after a few months in Granada, they were convinced that none of the agreed-upon was met, and the required expenses increased every month, according to police.

Investigators uncovered a connection between the two sports clubs involved, whose managers submitted numerous legalization cases to the city’s Foreign Office that were systematically dismissed due to incomplete documentation or due to late submissions.

waiting to be professional football players they ended when their visas or periods of stay as tourists expired, or when the family could not bear the required high economic costs, at which time the young person returned to his country or remained in an illegal situation in Spain, and was replaced by another player captured in the same way. (EFE)