Evictions at La Masia

Posted Wednesday, September 09, 2015 by Marca.com

FIFA has turned the screw on Barcelona, once again taking aim at their La Masia youth academy. Football's world governing body, which already banned the Catalans from signing new players for two transfer windows for irregularities regarding how the club recruited underage players, has now punished those exact underage players who moved to Europe to play football.

First it prevented them from playing for Barcelona, in both friendly and competitive matches, but now FIFA has banned them from training at the Catalan club's facilities and living at La Masia. This decision affects the nine players involved in very different ways. Bobby Adekanye, Takefusa Kubo and Kais Ruiz decided to leave the club and return to their respective countries, although Adekanye subsequently signed for Liverpool. Players like Theo Chendri can play because they are now adults, whilst others like South Korea's Lee Seung Woo and Seung-Ho Paik will be able to do so from January.

One player 'rescued' from the streets
However, the rest of them cannot play imminently and one of those most affected is Patrice Sousia. The Cameroonian had to vacate his room at La Masia, Strangely, what FIFA had intended, which was to protect the youngsters, has become the complete opposite to Sousia, who found himself on the street, homeless and with no future to dream of. However, there is solidarity in sports, as shown by his under-17 teammate, Alex Collado, whose family have taken him in. They are also trying to see if he can train with fourth-division (Tercera) side AE Prat.

FIFA's decision has turned these lads' lives upside down again. Last week, the father of one of the youngsters, Ben Lederman, expressed his disappointment and threatened to go to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). Ben is 15 years old, his entire family relocated to Barcelona and now they are faced with all this. "It is killing him. And as his dad, it's killing me, too, to see him like this. A year? Kids need to play; he practises, he practises, he practises, but he can't play? It's not right. I understand the rule was made to protect kids from being pulled away from their families. But our family made a choice to move to Spain together".