The incomprehensible sports ‘kidnapping’ of the AD Complutense Alcalá to a minor

Jaime had been running for three years and kicking a ball with the shield and portrait of AD Complutense, from Alcalá de Henares. Three seasons in which, in the words of his mother, Yolanda, “he made every effort and gave his best”, as requested by their respective coaches. His talent and good work took him last season –a year earlier than normal– to the Cadet Honor Division and his performance caught the attention of Atlético Chopera Alcobendas 04, which plays in a higher category, the Superliga. This is where the nightmare of this 15-year-old boy begins, who is handcuffed by the AD Complutense and a Madrid Football Federation (RFFM) that has a blindfold on.

“We have been living a nightmare since August. We are talking about the case of a 15-year-old boy, a minor,” highlights Yolanda, the mother, when AS. “At the end of last season, from AD Complutense they told us to sign the pre-registration for this campaign and if any Superliga team called Jaime, they would free him to promote him. We signed this document on June 21. On July 1, when the players are supposed to be free, Atlético Chopera contacts us and we met towards the end of the month, communicating the decision to the Complutense that Jaime is leaving on July 28. Jaime wanted to leave the doors open for a possible return, but that same day, incomprehensibly, the Complutense registers Jaime’s record,” says the mother, who could not find the president of the Alcalá club, Andrés Pizarro, until 6 September to try to address this in person: “In a very rude manner, he tells us: “He is not going to move anywhere and it is not for money, it is because I do not feel like it”. Of course, the receipts continue to be sent to us…”, Yolanda recounts.

According to the AD Complutense website, “we have established in our School a teaching-learning program different from those that exist in Spanish grassroots football, aimed at achieving a set of goals and objectives that vary according to the ages of our students, focused on their education and integral formation of the child”. For Yolanda, the philosophy of this club is far from “education and comprehensive training of the child”.

Since then, the minor continues to train with Chopera, while his mother tries to find a way out that allows them to lead a normal life. To do this, he spoke with the Vice-Ministry of Sports of the Community of Madrid and, After studying the case, in October they send a letter in which they consider the license invalid because it was signed before June 30 and, with this, the Madrid Football Federation cancels the license with Complutense and registers with Chopera, with whom he debuted in the Superliga at the end of that month of October.

Upon learning of this fact, President Andrés Pizarro contacts Paco Díez, president of the Madrid Football Federation, to revoke this situation and Mr. Díez sends an email to Chopera on October 29 suspending the license. Through an appeal they manage to get Jaime to play three more games with Chopera until on November 12 the Madrid Federation definitively discharges him from Chopera “and enrolls him in an AD Complutense team that does not exist,” says the minor’s mother to this newspaper, overwhelmed by the turn that the matter has taken.

A week later, Yolanda manages to meet with the Federation (the secretary Eduardo Jiménez) and the Community of Madrid (the deputy director of Sports, Antonio Guerrero) and, although it seemed that everything was going to work out, “Suddenly, from the Federation they began to drag the issue”, says Yolanda. In this way, and with the minor still in a situation of impunity, the mother decides to go to court to seek the release of her son, where the matter is currently pending.

“I do not understand how a man, like Andrés Pizarro, and a Federation, that of Mr. Díez, can be laughing like that at a 15-year-old boy, of a minor, that the only bad thing he has done is want to play in a category like the Super League. We had the word of the AD Complutense to let Jaime free if someone from this category called, but they lied to us and now they are playing with us. The only objective of the president of the Complutense is that my son does not play football this season”Yolanda denounces.

“I don’t understand how a man, like Andrés Pizarro, and a Federation, that of Mr. Díez, can be laughing like that at a 15-year-old boy, a minor, that the only bad thing he has done is want to play in a category such as the Super League. We had the word of the AD Complutense to let Jaime free if someone from this category called, but they lied to us and now they are playing with us. The only objective of the president of the Complutense is that my son does not play football this season,” Yolanda denounces.

“Jaime has not used the AD Complutense Alcalá facilities for a single day this season and there is no connection with the club, so we do not understand that this is being done to a 15-year-old boy, who pays to play, that there is no right of retention as he is under 16, causing irreparable damage, since next year The Youth category and these games that he is not playing and this category that was an opportunity for him, will not be able to recover. The Madrid football federation, as stated in the article of Law 6/1995, of March 28, on Guarantees of the Rights of Children and Adolescents of the Community of Madrid, the best interests of the minor should be sought, favoring their development in an integral way”, says Yolanda, Jaime’s mother.

The impotence that invades this family is such that it no longer knows what to do seeing that neither the Federation nor the Community of Madrid have been able to deal with the matter that, let us remember, features a boy who just wants to play soccer.