The Argentine Football Association has just issued a regulation banning the call-up of players who move abroad to play before signing a professional contract in their home country.
The aforementioned regulation aims to protect the interests of domestic teams, but simultaneously creates a controversial scenario when looking back at the case of Lionel Messi. According to Argentine football law, players can sign a professional contract from the age of 16. However, the Argentine Football Association (AFA) stated that the new decision was made to prevent players’ parents from exploiting “guardianship” to take their children to Europe early. This has previously caused training clubs in Argentina to receive only meager training compensation instead of transfer fees according to market value.
Javier Mendez Cartier, Director of AFA Youth Teams, asserted: “The AFA leadership always seeks to protect the interests of training clubs. Anyone who uses parental rights to emigrate contrary to regulations, their children will not be called up to any national team.”
If the aforementioned regulation had existed 20 years ago, the history of world football might have changed. Messi, who has just contributed to helping Argentina advance to the semi-finals of this year’s World Cup, joined Barcelona’s La Masia academy when he was only 13 years old. Under the new law, he would not be eligible to represent his country because he left Newell’s Old Boys without a professional contract.
