Source: Daily_Mail
'Ian Wright is wrong': Blatter's blast as he vows to probe academy revelations
Sepp Blatter has joined forces with the South African FA in condemning the controversial Cape Town football academy that boasts Ian Wright and six Premier League stars among its investors.
The FIFA president spoke for the first time about the growing crisis over how the most talented youngsters are recruited by clubs and academies.
He defended his organisation's decision to ban Chelsea from all transfers until January 2011 and warned other clubs they could even suffer points deductions for 'poaching' young players in the future.
Blatter confirmed FIFA are investigating the Africa Soccer Developments academy, from which Wright, Mart Poom, Danny Collins, Stephen Warnock, Alex Song, Julio Arca and Mamady Sidibe will receive 40 per cent of any transfer when players are sold to a club in Europe at the age of 18.
The academy does not have the approval of the South African FA. Asked about Wright's academy and the issue of 'child-trafficking' in football, Blatter said: 'This is one of the items we have just discussed with (UEFA president) Michel Platini, because all development programmes must be co-ordinated through FIFA and the national association.'
Raymond Hack, the SAFA chief executive who accused the academy of 'raping' his country of its football talent, told Sportsmail that he had now sent a letter to the British-run soccer school.
'The letter went this morning and it is demanding to know who, how, what and when,' he said. 'They did not come to SAFA for approval and they are not affiliated to the association as a result. Our advice is that people get involved with them at their peril.'
Yesterday, Wright responded to Hack's original accusations, and argued there was nothing wrong with making money out of the South African teenagers who attend the academy he opened in April.
'If money is made somewhere down the line, that's fine,' he said. 'But that is definitely not the aim of the academy.
'And any money we do make will be invested back into the school to train more South African coaches, to improve facilities and to give more boys an education and an opportunity.
'And even if, somewhere very far down the line, someone does make a bit of money from this academy, where's the negative in that?'
Blatter hinted clubs found guilty of illegal approaches could face points deductions, arguably an even stiffer penalty than the transfer embargo imposed on Chelsea over their signing of Gael Kakuta.
Blatter said: 'The best thing is to take points away. There are many cases (of alleged illegal approaches) on our desk.
'It is just the start of a tighter control of our game but we have to do it to protect the young players. Most of the cases are young players from Africa to Europe or from South America to Europe.'
Leeds chairman Ken Bates, who has seen a number of his most promising players lured to Premier League teams, backed the growing calls for leading clubs to lose points for what he called 'baby-farming'.
Bates, whose club was this week awarded compensation from Everton of up to £1.55million for England youth international Luke Garbutt, said: 'Big clubs don't care about money. Everton get £40m in the Premier League, they have just banked £24m for Lescott, so that's £64m alone and we get £600,000.
'The only way to stop this baby-farming and scouring of lower clubs is points deductions. For really serious offences clubs should be banned from Europe.'
