Source: Daily_Mail
Arsenal boss Wenger: Banning young players from moving clubs won't help
Arsene Wenger has defended Arsenal's policy of recruiting the cream of world football's young talent and insisted that raising the minimum transfer age to 18 will have little effect.
Chelsea have been banned from making any signings for the next two transfer windows by FIFA, who upheld a claim by Lens that they had induced Gael Kakuta to break his contract.
Arsenal themselves have fallen foul of the rules regarding the transfer of youngsters.
Having already snapped up Cesc Fabregas from Barcelona, a Spanish court ordered fellow Barca youngster Fran Merida to pay the Catalan club £2.3million in compensation following his move to the Emirates in 2006.
The money is understood to have been paid by Arsenal on Merida's behalf, but Wenger is adamant that his recruitment of talented youngsters is done by the book and that both FIFA and UEFA - whose president Michel Platini wants to ban transfers for under 18s - should not prevent players realising their dream of playing for a top side.
Rejecting accusations that such moves are tantamount to child trafficking, Wenger said: 'If you have a child who's gifted at football, what is his best opportunity to develop as a player? If you have a boy of 16 years old and he wants to go to the States to study, can you stop him?
'We buy a young boy - because there is compensation - we plan and give him a chance to play. We promote, we educate and we integrate. That is why we have success in the way we do it.
'FIFA can come here and immediately I open the door for inspection to show them what we do and how we treat the boys. That's not the case everywhere.
'You have to think what will give him the best opportunity, the best education and to confront him with the best players. That's a basic rule. I've been long enough in the game to be convinced that the best with the best - there's no better education.'
Claiming that a ban on clubs signing players until they are 18 will lead to even more unscrupulous practices, Wenger said: 'It will still carry on, no matter what FIFA do. Do you think clubs will wait until boys are 18 before trying to secure a player?
They will do it first, even if it's a future agreement with the clubs.
'Also, if you ban players from moving before the age of 18, the players will be sold to agents at 13 or 14. Where will they go? Not to clubs with top-level education, but to clubs who have been bought by businessmen of a very low level.
'The money will go out of the game. If a player goes to Man Utd, Chelsea or Arsenal, it's all clear and he gets a good education.
