Help Us Fight Human Trafficking in Football!

In 2025, the Sports and Crime Briefing is launching a global campaign to aid players from Africa and South America being trafficked around the world by false agents. We need your support.

Let’s call it what it is. Fake agents conning young players from Africa and South America into paying a fortune and abandoning them in far-flung corners of Europe is human trafficking.

This morning, I published the Sports and Crime Briefing’s 30th article. It told the story of Cardoso Varela, a 16-year-old football prodigy who helped Portugal win the U17 Euro Championship in June—and then vanished. He hasn’t been seen in public for six months.

You REALLY cared about this story. In just eight hours, it became our most-read article. But Varela’s story is just one of thousands.

Across Europe, teenagers from Brazil, Nigeria, Ghana, and beyond are preyed upon by fake agents who steal their money. These kids end up exploited, trafficked, or stranded in foreign countries.

In just two months, The Sports and Crime Briefing has built an incredible audience, including readers at FIFA, the IOC, Manchester United, Barcelona—even the World Conker Championships.

But we want to do more. We need your help …