18 March 2009

When a dream becomes

a nightmare
Photos: sxc.hu, cutoday.wordpress.com

agents, with one example being outlined. A family would be

asked to pay around £3,000 to get their son(s) into a train-
ing camp or team in another country. If negotiations were
successful, and the money paid to the agent(s), the player(s)
would then be abandoned upon their arrival.
Ade Daramy - journalist and broadcaster - said that these
unscrupulous individuals were “selling a dream that very,
very rapidly becomes a nightmare”. It emerged that many
of these unsupported players are in actual fact illegal im-
migrants as a result of their ‘agent’s’ actions; Chris Nathaniel

W
described these individuals as “opportunists, not agents”,
ith the World Cup being staged in South adding: “wherever you get business, you’re going to get op-
Africa in less than two years time, African portunists”.
footballers are being increasingly put under Organiser of Score4Africa, Oneyachi Wambo believes that
the ethical microscope. On Thursday, as
part of Coventry University’s ‘Africa Day’, the
media lecture series, Coventry Conversations organised a
special debate entitled, ‘Is football the new slavery’?
Among those attending was MBE recipient Cyril Regis, a
former Coventry City and England player as well as Chris
Nathaniel who represents Manchester United and England
international, Rio Ferdinand.
The debate covered the exploitation of African players as
they come to play in Europe, especially the Premier League,
and the lack of support currently being offered to those
players who ‘failed’ to make it in the elite leagues.
Regis said that he did not consider current trends to be
slavery, but instead “an exploitation of people’s dreams”
which has been encouraged by the huge amounts of money
often present in professional football.
He added that the promise of enormous rewards for those the fundamental solution to this escalating problem is to
players who succeed means that few wish to give-up on improve the regulations governing the game, and to plough
the dream, and those who do are often subject to a type of some of the immense profits the games generates back into
“familial blackmail”. This would see individuals remain in it.
an industry regarded as punishing simply to support their By Danielle Cox
families back home.
Another area touched upon was the fraudulent actions For more on this story and many others check out the
of the many conmen who present themselves as reputable CUToday blog at cutoday.wordpress.com
Extra, Extra! Read all about it - online
„„ David Brookes, Editor of the Coventry Telegraph,
said last week that the future of the newspaper industry
would not be “exclusively on the web”, but that instead
online and print papers should complement each other
in this digital age. “The idea that the web will abolish
print is far too simplistic,” he said. “It will profoundly
change what goes into print, but thanks to the web I
Daniel Berry.
The blog, which has recently moved, can be found at
www.cutoday.wordpress.com. The site is easy to navigate
and is a great source of information on upcoming events
as well as reporting on University happenings.
With over 1500 hits the new site is rapidly becoming

CU Today
think that newspapers can be better, and those that very popular.
survive will have to adapt.” If you’d like to submit any stories for publication in the
That’s the challenge that CU Today has risen to over A&D newspapers, contact Jason Craig and Daniel Berry
recent weeks, running an online blog that complements at CUToday@ymail.com or Danielle Cox at thebuzz@
the print editions of the AD newspapers, the Buzz and fsmail.net
Cu Today, as well as providing high quality reporting on
an event-by-event basis. CU Today is primarily the work Coventry university band, Phatboy
of under-graduate journalism students, administrated
by two final year journalism students, Jason Craig and
is playing at the Kasbah on
the 20th March to
celebrate the end Talente

Cov d
of term.

Reeves live at Coventry www.myspace.com/phatboyuk

„„ Mercia Radio producer, Tom Reeves, gave insight into
the world of weekly breakfast radio, at one of three Cov-
entry Conversations this week.
Speaking to mainly Journalism students, Tom com-
mented on the different jobs available “if you are willing
to show your commitment”, even it means getting up at
4.30am every day. Yet did remind future graduates “com-
petition is fierce, and jobs scarce”.
is pushing to beat Chris Moyles in the ratings. It has
emerged as the most popular show in Coventry in the
mornings with around 160,000 listeners. This makes him
3rd after Moyles and Terry Wogan. With this he did warn
this job “won’t make you a millionaire but it’s the best job
in the world”.
He like many of the audience started at a student
radio station, so many listened intently as this was a
man who started at work experience,
and is now at his dream job
By Alice Tester
Pihoto: www.mercia.fm

Before moving to Mercia FM last July, Reeves started If you’ve been unlucky enough to
at the bottom, by making tea and rearranging his Boss’s miss a Conversation, they’re avail-
office, to become deputy Programme Controller at his able to download online at
hometown station ‘Red Dragon’. wwwp.coventry.ac.uk/podcasts
With his breakfast show with Andy Goulding, he

The student and staff newsletter of the Media and

Communications department of Coventry School of Art
and Design
Edited by Danielle Cox
Submissions are invited, please send any articles to
thebuzz@fsmail.net
Thanks to John Mair, Jason Craig, Daniel Berry and Alice Tester