Argentina sex abuse scandal sparks uproar
BUENOS AIRES: Argentina’s Football Association said on Wednesday that it will closely monitor boarding houses where youth players live following a sex abuse scandal involving minors at two of the country’s most popular and powerful clubs.
River Plate said earlier this week that it will collaborate with authorities after a local NGO reported minors were allegedly abused in the club’s youth divisions from 2004-11. The abuse accusations come just days after police arrested a referee for his suspected involvement in a child prostitution ring with players from the Independiente youth club.
“We want this to be investigated,” said Dante Majori, the president of Argentine Football Association’s youth and children’s committee.
“We want to contribute with the law so that those responsible for these abhorrent acts are caught.”
Majori said the abuse allegations took place before he came into the job last year, and had not been reported until now. But he said that the football federation, known by its AFA acronym, will launch inspections nationwide.
“We’ve set out to revise and carry out a protocol to regulate these boarding houses” he told local Todo Noticias TV channel.
Independiente recently filed a complaint with prosecutors after at least two of the club’s youth division players were allegedly the victims of a prostitution ring. The allegations first surfaced after one of the players broke down during a session with a psychologist. He said that he had been abused, that he had sex with men in exchange for money, and that players were recruited to the prostitution ring by another club member.
The prosecutor investigating the case said on Wednesday that the 19-year-old who recruited them was abused himself, and is now cooperating with authorities. At least seven minors were prostituted and 10 more minors are believed to have been potential victims.
Five men suspected to be part of the prostitution ring have been arrested. Investigators are also analysing calls made to young players for possible grooming.
“Many kids were contacted but they didn’t fall. We’re investigating this. Thank God these acts were not carried out,” prosecutor Maria Soledad Garibaldi said at a news conference. “We’re all united here — the kids, the parents, and the law.’’
In football-crazed Argentina, thousands of talented kids train in football academies and club youth divisions that have been talent factories where Diego Maradona, Lionel Messi, and other stars once polished their skills as children.
Many children in club boarding houses come from low-income families in remote communities, and live far from their parents under the care of clubs, dreaming of a chance to make it big in the hyper competitive world of professional football.
Investigators say some of the young victims were offered trips to their home provinces and football boots in exchange for sex.
“They took advantage of their maximum vulnerability,” Buenos Aires provincial attorney-general Julio Marcelo Conte Grand, told reporters. “They took advantage of their utmost desire to reach professional success.”