Parents whose children move from one football nursery to another should not be made to pay transfer fees, Children’s Commissioner Pauline Miceli insists.
Such fees went against the children’s right to engage in recreational activities and was symptomatic of a mindset that saw children as a means to an end, Ms Miceli said.
Various appeals have been made over the years for the removal of the nursery compensation fee for young players, and the Malta Football Players Association has now launched a petition calling for an end to the “exploitation of children”.
The online petition, which has already attracted more than 1,500 signatures, says children playing football in Malta are treated as financial commodities. A child is the club’s property, and to move from one club to another, the parents or guardians usually have to pay a sum that could run into thousands of euros, it adds.
Even if a child is unhappy or is not playing regularly, the club is still entitled to receive the compensation, which is over and above the annual membership and kit fees. “Freedom comes at a price… Let’s stop this,” the MFPA is insisting.
Ms Miceli said her office regularly received complaints about the compensation fee. In principle, the office has always objected to such payment, deeming it a restriction on the passage of children from one nursery to another. It wanted the fee to be abolished.
“When there is real need for a child to move to another nursery, the fee, which can be prohibitively high for many families, impinges on the child’s fundamental right to engage in play and recreational activities… It leads to a situation where the child cannot train and play football with any club that is a member of the Malta Football Association,” she noted.
She added that, since it was rare for a club to pay compensation fee to another club, it was clear that the aim of the fee was to deter the movement of children. “Hence, the fee is symptomatic of a wrong mindset that sees children as a means to the end of football clubs to achieve competitive success over one another.”
Clubs had to understand that their role was to offer children an educational service and an opportunity to play football competitively as part of a team, Ms Miceli said.
They should be partners, rather than rivals, in the fulfilment of such a primary role. “A child who needs to move should not be seen as a failed investment for which there should be compensation but as a person whose right to play can be met by another sports organisation,” she added. This, Ms Miceli pointed out, also meant that funds should be devolved to nurseries in a way that was commensurate with their social role of nurturing the children’s sportsmanship values.
She acknowledged that removing the fee was not easy, because it could only be done through agreement among the clubs.
Ms Miceli highlighted the need to give children a voice and a vote in the running and representation of football clubs. Parallel to its advocacy against the nursery fee, the Children’s Commissioner has also pushed for incremental measures that could diminish the fee’s negative effects.
It said that, last year, it succeeded in helping raise the minimum age for the registration of players with football club nurseries – and the applicability of the compensation fee - from 10 to 12 years.
Ms Miceli said her office would continue lobbying to put an end to the compensation fee and, in the meantime, work on minimising the adverse effects of the fee on the children’s basic right to play.
The petition can be signed on www.gopetition.com/petitions/mfpa.html.