The Premier League are making moves to cut down the amount of transfers of players between the age of nine and sixteen by asking for the phone and bank records of players family. The move is to stop tapping up by academy teams.
The obscene amount of money being spent by Premier League sides does not stop at the elite players in the game. Clubs are spending more and more and being more underhanded to sign the best teenagers about and in some circumstances pre-teens. The Premier League's new rules aim to cut down on tapping up of youngsters.
According to the Mirror the league are receiving more and more complaints from the 24 clubs with Premier League Academy category one status and have decided to put an end to it. Under a new set of rules parents will have to agree to hand over phones and bank records in order to stop illegal payments and the promise of cars, houses and jobs in order to get a family agree to a move.
One incident has also seen a player be asked to hand over his phone to be checked for messages from the club. If a family doesn't agree then the transfer can't be completed.
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A source told the paper how serious the issue is saying, "There are so many complaints and clubs are increasingly anxious about putting time, effort and a lot of finance into developing youngsters - both on a football and pastoral level - if another club just comes along and pinches them.
"This is to stop the sort of transfer which happens when a kid says he's fallen out of love with the game, leaves a club and then two days later signs for another club.
"It will also remind parents of their responsibility because, while they are caring, loving and want the best for their kids, sometimes - with high finance at stake - people can come along and try to turn their heads."
The Premier League believe that players shouldn't need to move between category one clubs because the levels that academies need to prove to stay at category one level are so high that they will get the same training between each one.
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However parents argue that sometimes a player just doesn't get on with a coach or doesn't like the school that they have to go to as part of being a member of that academy, as the academies are all connected to schools so a player's education doesn't dip.
Another source told the paper that parents are concerned that the new rules go too far and that sometimes players just want to move for the good of their lives saying, "It is ridiculous to think that now you cannot change between clubs without being fully investigated.
"What happens if the boy is unhappy, doesn't like the club or the coach? Sometimes it's done purely because the boys or the parents think another club would be better."
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