ARGENTINA
Independiente file report of youth players using facilities as brothel
The lawyer for the club says they could be looking at the possible sexual exploitation of people along with trafficking as the club announce they have filed a report.
Daniel Llermanos, the lawyer for Argentine top flight side Independiente, along with the club's president, Hugo Moyano, confirmed on Wednesday night they "filed a report for the abuse of facilities by a person, to the harm of players from lower divisions of the institution". All reports point towards the use of the club by juvenile players as a brothel for a prostitution ring.
A tweet from César Luis Merlo from TyC Sports says a player, who has already been dismissed by the club, took other boys to have sex in an area in Avellenada where the club is located in Buenos Aires.
Initials suspicions were raised when a psychologist for the club interviewed one of the players and went immediately to the board with the complaint according to the Llermanos on channel C5N.
The former judge and current lawyer for the club said the investigation is in its earliest stages but said that the club's idea is to speak with more people and present all of the data and findings in order to get to the bottom of it.
'Open door'
Llermanos said "the idea is to open the door to the prosecutor for everything they need". He also said that he spoke to someone involved in sport who told him that these things are more frequent than you might expect before citing the importance of "the professional structure of the club to allow them to take the path to clear this up."
He finished by saying he is confident that the speed at which they acted will help the case "because this could be sexual explotation in the form of possible trafficking".
