The second reason that prompted us to touch on the topic of emigration of athletes, and mostly illegal emigration, was a recent match between the national football teams of Albania and Ukraine, which ended in a victory for our players – 2:0. In this case, the point is not the victory, but the fact that in the early 1990s Albanian footballers fled their country like rats from a sinking ship, and that alone made them part of history. So, illegal sports emigration.
When studying this phenomenon, logical questions arise, the answers to which explain a lot. Where do they flee? To where it is better than where they fled from. That is as clear as day, and so almost 90% of states can confidently be added to the list of 'sports donor countries.' They flee mainly from poverty and lack of prospects. True, there are frequent cases when the main reason for fleeing is said to be the political system of the country. Why do they flee? To have a chance to improve living conditions or to get the opportunity to realize oneself. Who flees?
The lists of fugitives are extremely diverse – from unknown young people to the most famous figures in their field. It is believed that if prominent personalities from the world of sport or culture begin to emigrate, the political system of that country is experiencing a serious crisis. Incidentally, it was no coincidence that a joke once originated in the Soviet Union: 'What is the Maly Academic Theatre? It is the Bolshoi Academic Theatre after a tour in the USA.'
The most convenient time for fleeing is a trip abroad as part of a large delegation. There is less attention on your person, and it is easier to disappear. For example, in 1996 the Cuban Olympic baseball team came to the USA (the state of Georgia) for friendly matches against the teams of Nicaragua and South Korea in anticipation of the Olympic Games in Atlanta. One of the best players of the Cuban national team, Rolando Arrojo, left the hotel where his team was staying early in the morning and disappeared.
Arrojo was considered a world-class baseball player, a superstar, and shortly before that he had practically single-handedly outplayed the US national team. Arrojo, having crossed the threshold of the hotel, decided not to return to Cuba: the socialist regime in his home country was not to his liking. Curiously, two weeks earlier, two Cuban boxers, also members of the country's Olympic team, had asked for political asylum in the USA.
At the end of 2001, after beating the Greek national team away, the footballers of the Moldovan women's national team decided to mark the event with a escape. Immediately after the match, three of the team's best forwards disappeared from the hotel – Valentina Tsurkan, Tatyana Nikitina, and Olga Schmidt. The team's management assumed that the escape had been carefully planned, and that the fugitives would soon sign contracts with some foreign clubs. It was then recalled that Moldovan wrestlers and swimmers had not returned home from the Olympic Games in Sydney, and a team of journalists that had gone to an international tournament had lost half of its members already on the first day of the competition.
A trip with some team to an away match as part of a support group is also an excellent option for entering a country that an ordinary citizen would find extremely difficult to get into just like that. Take, for example, the recent (September 2004) trip of Dnipropetrovsk's 'Dnipro' to a UEFA Cup match in Tel Aviv. When leaving Israel, it was discovered that the Ukrainian delegation had decreased by several people who had decided not to wait for the weather by the sea but to boldly get down to business. They failed to adapt to the Israeli environment: the data on the fugitives was passed to the Israeli police, who quickly caught the uninvited guests and expelled them from the country.
At the same time, it can be said that Ukraine is still a more or less prosperous country with regard to fugitives. Because what is happening in a number of African countries simply makes one clutch one's head. The sports authorities of Cameroon are raising the alarm: the flight of young players is going beyond all reasonable limits. By the most modest estimates, about 700 young footballers have left Cameroon in search of a better life over two years, most of whom found refuge in France, Switzerland, and Germany.
The first joint attempt by the Ministry of Sports and the national federation to lower the barrier on the path of uncontrolled football emigration resulted in a decree requiring football agents who have flooded the country to obtain, in addition to a FIFA license, a local document with a seal. However, as the General Secretary of the Cameroon Football Federation, Jean Mbala, admitted, all this is not too serious. Over the past year, only 30 footballers have approached him to obtain an international transfer certificate.
All the rest left the country using dozens of various methods, including forging official documents, signatures, changing their real age and even their first and last names. 'We are powerless,' the official admitted. 'Too many people are interested in footballers leaving the country. The arsenal of means at their disposal is too large. Even if we get an opportunity to control, FIFA with its laws immediately deprives us of our last chance.'
Returning to the Albanian footballers mentioned at the beginning of the story, I note that they left the country with great pleasure – both individually and in groups. Both according to existing agreements and, as they say, on a whim. For example, the escape of one of the most famous Albanian athletes, Rudi Vata, could become the plot of a detective novel. In March 1991, after a match against the French national team in Paris, at the Parc des Princes stadium, Vata walked out of the stadium in his sports uniform and disappeared in an unknown direction.
Later, Rudi, who ended up in Glasgow, told journalists in detail the twists and turns of his escape: “In Albania I had no freedom, I could not say what I wanted, think as I wanted, do what I wanted, freely choose books to read and listen to my favorite music. As a national team player I traveled abroad, but everywhere I was followed by agents of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. It was they who decided when and how I would train, what length of hair to wear, how often I should shave. They decided what I should eat and drink. And at one fine moment I decided to put an end to this.”
To be continued.