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 to investigate this crime. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber for less than 6 dollars a month.

We want to go further in 2025 and:

• Investigate on the ground in West Africa and South America to expose how these fake agents operate.

• Begin the first-ever investigation into the trafficking of young women players for which there is almost no data.

• Launch a TikTok and Instagram campaign *the two platforms where they are most commonly recruited) to warn vulnerable players.

• Create a 24/7 hotline where players and their families can verify agents and avoid scams.

• Publish a comprehensive report on the scale of this crisis and how to stop it.
  
  For less than $6 a month, you can help us make this happen. Your support means we can uncover the truth, protect young players, and hold those responsible accountable.
  

  WHAT DO YOU GET?
  
  - 15 articles a month on all crimes affecting all sports.
  - The Cheat Sheet, a weekly round-up of all match-fixing, corruption and criminal news for integrity professionals and sports fans alike.
  - Your name or organization listed and thanked in our upcoming Sports and Crime Briefing 2025 Preview.
  - A 40-minute consultation with our editor, Chris Dalby, on any sports and crime topic you like.