Fiery Deaths of 10 Boys Exposes Brutality of Brazil’s Soccer Mills

The sad thing is that poverty forces these kinds of choices for families. Wouldn’t it be nice if we had a society that took care of people and if this happened, great. If it didn’t, it wouldn’t matter because families are safe and secure in terms of housing, employment, healthcare etc. Society has to choose between greed and support for everyone.

How many parents in the US push their kids into literally bashing their brains to goo in “midget football” leagues and camps - basketball and baseball camps too - and here we’re talking well-off parents. And how many NCAA team recruiters hang out at games where poor kids play, promising parents to make their kids college stars, never mind the academics. Even the chess world grinds kids to pieces - maybe more in Russia than anywhere else? Brazil is an extreme case, due to the greater part of its population’s extreme poverty. But in most of the world, outside North America, the line is “This isn’t about life and death- it’s more important; it’s football.” The US could lead the way, fund many university scholarships and stop lying if it eliminated the big-game teams, allowing the NBA, NFL and NHL to put farm teams on college campuses - paid athletes replacing “student” stars. Think of it - how many NYC tri-state area campus would love to be paid to replace their costly athletic programs with real A- and AA- farm teams? After all, that’s what the big team student athletes really are. The leagues could buy their minor-league players who don’t make it, full scholarships! Baseball farm team kids have the opportunity to spend at least one semester a year as students- the reason it’s not a major NCAA sport. As long as poor, even mid-income parents see sports as they see lottery tickets - a quick way out of poverty - the “amateur sports” systems will take the opportunity to buy them up

The entire world of soccer is dominated by big money and corrupt people. This is more evident in a country like Brazil, but it could be any country including the US, where people see that skill in a sport like soccer guarantees wealth and success. However, the FBI's investigation a few years ago revealed the shameful corruption at the highest levels of the FIFA, but still masses of people pay good money every week to see teams compete in prearranged games, where the outcome is agreed upon by the very coaches and technical directors. A plot worthy of the Godfather. Some of the best known names in the game have been implicated in fixing games. Even the Buffons, Beckenbauers, Messis and Cristiano Ronaldos of the world are implicated in dubious arrangements. But as long as young people see soccer stars as role models, and big sport corporations feed money into that fantasy, things will continue as usual.

In the end the problem is based on people's desperation combined with their failure to grasp, or even willfully ignore, the probabilities they face. Desperate and undereducated people are good at idolizing the super rich and successful, but not good at understanding the vanishingly small probability of joining their ranks. Whether it's poor people in Brazil (soccer) or the US (NBA basketball) or elsewhere, the same mistake is made over and over -- they actually believe their kid has a realistic shot, when in truth a breakthrough is so unlikely it's truly foolish to start down that road. OTOH, when society has left entire groups of people in a state of desperation, with at best very limited prospects of access to the economic fruits enjoyed by others, it's understandable why they try.

I wonder why something like this hasn't happened in the United States of America yet, with our worship of College Football and Basketball. I hope that Brazil gets to the bottom of their issue, and that the NCAA and the member schools get back to doing Education.

this saddens me to no end. soccer,basketball, football(American) are all now used as tools of a new kind of slavery. it is frightening to see. buying and selling young boys in ramshackle conditions. poor parents. all they wanted was dreams of a better future.. soo sad

This makes the US Collegiate model look pretty good, doesn’t it?

Families pinning their hopes on a child's athletic skills is an issue that is present everywhere in the world. As well as the financial jackpot, the family and the surrounding community gain vicariously. It can only be made fairer for the young if there is international control by the sports organizations. That won't happen until the fan base demands it. It was a year ago to this day that 16 teenagers from Humbolt. Saskatchewan, who played on a Junior A hockey team died in a bus crash. They were playing Junior A hockey team, which is a stepping stone to the NHL.

No different than the Singer guy...the agent who took millions to get rich kids in elite schools...whatsoever makes money you can be sure there are filthy people involved to exploit the innocent...but it’s the parents I blame...selling their children for a hope and a dream.

I thought teaching the next generation was a covenant between a society and its children and that patience, perseverance and the respect of others were practiced virtues. Now, everything has been let loose and advertising, grifters, rampant inequality, immediate gratification, "stars" are creating a general madness to be added to global warming, water pollution, rampant misery, propaganda, etc. It used to be that family would start with the minimum and, through hard work, would patiently move upward. That was not good enough. Eventually everybody was determined to skip steps and break ahead. If we do not get a hold on demagogues, the military, and religion everything will become a run for the exits, democracy will disappear from the face of the earth for another 3 centuries and we will go back to the Middle Ages for a while. That will not be MAGA-like, you can be assured of that! No wonder we never lose our reptilian brain. You never know when you will need it!

“City officials issued an order closing the facility in 2017, but never carried it out, limiting their sanctions to dozens of fines.” Utterly sickening. Nothing more than human trafficking. What KIND of monsters do this to the innocent, and to their intentionally disillusioned families? What KIND of monsters?

Consensualized semantics label an activity as a “sport,” be it soccer, football, baseball, etc. The players as athletes, the followers, at a labeled site, at home, or at bars, pubs, etc., as “fans,” are misleading. “Systemic commodification,” in which young and older children are transmuted into commodities to be sold, traded, objectified, dehumanized, and exploited, whatever their “salaries,” and whatever their urine’s drug-freedom, is THE GAME. Profit is the goal; whatever the numbered score! Bodies are to be manipulated; meds and massages are incidentals. Psyches are to be psyched UP; “down,” you’re on your own! All of this is framed within an ongoing culture of enabled personal unaccountability for harmful temporary and more harmful outcomes, associated with influential individuals and systems. Known as well as hidden one’s! Horses, hurt and wounded, are killed; not murdered, even as intent exists. Hurt and wounded players, whatever, for example, the state of their limbs, brains, and psyches are simply forgotten. The availability and accessibility to choose another commodity appears to be endless. All enabled by each of US; by our complacency or complicity. The game goes on. Refereed by...? Turn the page to the next news item.

God bless these boys souls and provide peace to their families! What a tragedy!

How about all those youngsters of poor parents in the US that cram in academic stuff, and then later lose the competition for admission to prestigious colleges because of cheating? Could you call that the underbelly of academia? Overall, the exercise involved, and the social skill learned from a team sport, may be just as valuable as academic skills. The best is to combine them.

The fiery deaths don't just highlight the problem with Brazilian Soccer, they highlight the problems in most professional sports which are owned and control by the extremely wealthy, but sacrifice the youth for their own personal gains. The promotion of superstardom, the amounts paid to these few athletes is written off as recruiting and promotions in the sports industry. They are a tax write off. In 2000 years you would think humans would have outgrown gladiator games to entertain the masses. But seeing and paying to watch grown men chase a ball seems to be everything. Who cares what it does to the athlete's life who has a lifetime of injuries, pain drug addiction, and shattered dreams. There are a couple who got famous enough to be able to hawk sportswear for the rest of their lives.

Aren't most of the disadvantaged youth and young men pursuing football and basketball careers in this country being just as unrealistic?

There is an obsession with big business sports: And in the United States we have wound it and bound it to—of all places—our colleges and universities. [But aren’t they supposed to be educational institutions?]

It’s almost a form of trafficking these young boys.

If you live in the US and want to make a fortune your odds are better with the lottery than with your kid becoming a soccer star. Also you can photoshop a pic of your kid's head on another kid's body to facilitate that Ivy League education.

Worldwide soccer is a multi-million dollar business. There is little incentive for anybody to change a system that generates this kind of money. It starts with parents who willingly chase illusory fantasies that their kid can become Neymar and are exploited by swindlers who tell them what they want to hear. The clubs are more than happy to exploit this scheme. Fans want winners and don’t care how their clubs secure players. The issues surrounding this exploitation can be found all over South America and Africa. This tragedy will produce much anguish but little change because few, including those being exploited and tossed aside, have any interest in seeing the system change.

Exactly the same model over here in Europe, only the boys they exploit are recruited in Africa and shipped over. A tiny handful make it to a professional career: the rest are just spewed out of the system and have to fend for themselves in a hostile environment and without the life skills needed to survive. A form of modern slavery.

Another NYT negative story about soccer. A beautiful game good for the mind and body enjoyed by billions of people of all races, creeds, gender, age, etc. regardless of skill level or economic status. Pure joy to watch and play. This unfortunate incident in Brazil has nothing to do with the sport of course and only the american media reports it this way. Biased and shameful reporting.

As long as there are the impoverished, the desperate, the marginalised, and the excluded seeking escape and reaching out towards higher aspirations and dreams, there will be those dregs waiting in the wings to exploit them . . .

Tragic, to be sure, but how different is this than what goes on in youth basketball in the USA?

What about the youth soccer movement in this country? Wasn't Nike a sponsor of the Brazil national team. This is all just another metaphor for how obsessed the world is with sports, competition, greed and violence.

This is a sad story. I wonder if the Brazilian soccer stars in Europe making millions could start a foundation that supports such youth leagues. It would be nice if these youth leagues inBrazil acted more professional and followed regulations. Hopefully, the large amounts of money that such a foundation could provide would not be squandered by corrupt managers of the youth leagues.