Granada (EFE) elite professionals.
Within the framework of these operations, called Gol and Alevines and carried out during the first quarter of this year, eleven people have been arrested and another two investigated as alleged members of both organizations.
These are two soccer schools-clubs for youth and senior categories in Granada, the Police reported, whose investigation was based on a complaint from a player and his coach who claimed to have been signed in their country of origin by one of these schools, located in a town in the metropolitan area of Granada, to participate in official sports competitions.
The family paid the 5,000 euros required by those responsible for the club, which included accommodation, meals, travel, private medical insurance and enrollment in an official educational center to obtain legal residence for studies in Spain, a process that would be handled by the lawyer for the school-club.
After several months of stay, reports the Police, they verified that nothing of what was agreed was fulfilled, while the required expenses increased each month.
The scammed: young Brazilians between 16 and 23 years old
The first investigations into the club-school revealed the existence of some 30 foreign youngsters between the ages of 16 and 23 of different origins, although in greater numbers Brazilians, who were housed in two houses rented by the sports club in a town in the metropolitan area of Grenade.
In parallel, the agents found indications of a relationship between those responsible for this club-school with another located in another Granada municipality, whose players, about 40, also mostly from Brazil, resided in a house owned by the managers.
In addition, the managers of both clubs had submitted a multitude of regularization files at the city’s Foreigners’ Office which, systematically, always ended up being denied, since, in most cases, the documentation submitted was incomplete or out of date. of term.
The circumstance occurs that none of the players from both schools attended classes, despite the fact that in all the regularization files, enrollments from educational centers were provided.
Overcrowded, little food and no legal residence
In addition, they lived in the houses provided by the clubs in overcrowded conditions, with little food, without any of them being able to regularize their legal residence and contributing between 1,500 and 1,700 euros each month that the organization claimed from their families, an amount that was added to the 5,000 initially delivered.
According to the Police, the deception of the families went further, since they were told that they could not join a federation, when the Andalusian soccer federation only requires a valid passport to participate in official competitions at the provincial or regional level.
The organization’s way of acting was always the same: they recruited young people from wealthy economic backgrounds and abilities as soccer players in their countries of origin, to move to Spain with the idea of being future professional soccer players, for which they proposed to start playing. in teams of lower, youth or senior categories, with options to be discovered and signed by world-renowned clubs.
The expectations of being professional footballers ended once the visas or periods of stay as tourists expired, or when the family could not bear the high economic cost required, at which time the young person returned to his country or remained in an irregular situation. in Spain, and was replaced by another player recruited in the same way.
This criminal plot was made up of three links, the first of which was formed by the recruiters, residents or displaced to the countries of origin of the scammed to contact the families, the same ones who were also in charge of providing the documentation to foreigners. .
The second was made up of the owners of educational centers that certified the false registration of foreigners so that they could obtain visas and facilitate access conditions at the border.
And the third was made up of the management team, in charge of designing the strategy, acquiring or renting the homes in which to house them, and simulating procedures to defraud families.