Watch “Soccer’s Lost Boys” (Vanguard Documentary)

By Tambay, on June 17th, 2010

Consider this a companion piece to Baff Akoto’s Football Fables documentary, which we’ve profiled on this blog. I’ve yet to see it, but in watching Baff talk about it in interviews, I feel like I have a good sense of what to expect from it. Currently playing the film festival circuit, it should come my way eventually. The below 45-minute piece is courtesy of Current TV’s Vanguard series, titled Soccer’s Lost Boys. It explores the more disagreeable elements of the sport’s global popularity – something that’s been termed “the new slave trade.”

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Africa: History of African Participation in the World Cup

Part two in a 4 part documentary series about the history of African football. In this part BBC sports presenter Farayi Mungazi narrates and we hear from the likes of soccer legends Abedi Pele (Gha), Segun Odegbami (NIG), Ilunga Mwepu (DRC) as well as Zambian commentator Dennis Liwewe and others.

High points are the former head of the Nigeria Football Association, Anthony Kofo Williams, making some serious claims about Nigeria's use of over aged players and Zambian Football Coaches Association (AFCA) general secretary Simataa Simataa attributes the preference African countries have for foreign coaches to a colonial legacy.