By Mark Lugo

From a very early age, our son Marianno, known as Nanno, loved to kick a football around. Coming from a baseball and American football background, I never really understood football too much. I would play XBOX during the late stages of my wife’s pregnancy to ease the anxiety. I guessed that, living in Costa Rica and being married to a Costa Rican lady, I would need to learn the sport. The best way was playing, or at least trying to play, on XBOX, and I did learn most of the rules of the game.

Note from The Costa Rica Star: This article originally appeared in Medium, a respected online publishing platform. The article has been slightly edited for style, and it has been republished with the permission of its author.

In retrospect, XBOX gameplay helped me learn what would come naturally to Nanno later in life. He had a love for the game, but he also preferred to play with Hot Wheel cars and other toys. It wasn’t always football. Nonetheless, he spent a good part of the day kicking and chasing the little blue and white ball around the patio.

Around the age of 5, we got him started in a small soccer school in Cartago, the former capital of Costa Rica. Of course even the club had to be the one my wife chose. In Costa Rica, pride for “el equipo” runs deep. There are four main clubs (Cartagines, Alajuelense, Saprissa, Herediano) and the others. Football runs deep and the team is always important. I learned quickly that it’s team first, then soccer. After a few months on the team, Nanno began to show some real deep interest in goalkeeping. That’s the position he loved.

Fast forward to Barcelona. We moved here after proposing a business deal with an app company we partnered with. Our idea was to expand the business here, grow it and eventually buy out the existing partner and do some wonderful things with the app in Europe. Things don’t always work out as planned; however, we remained in Barcelona. Nanno was already enrolled in school and making a social circle of friends.

Come September 2014, Nanno started playing for a Penya Barcelonista club. The season went well and I even served as the team’s delegate. Apparently, no other parents wanted the responsibility. So I stepped up to the plate, or to the goal, one would say. This would afford me the chance to learn a little more of the game outside of XBOX.

In June 2015, we decided to switch to a club closer to Nanno’s school. Enrollment went fine. However in late September, we were informed that due to FIFA Article 19, Nanno would not be able to play in the league matches. Apparently, FIFA requires a stack of multiple documents and paperwork to approve foreign born players. Nanno was born in Costa Rica; he has dual United States and Costa Rica citizenship, but we are living in Spain. This makes it possible for FIFA to block Nanno’s request for a license to play. Yes, 8 year old children need a license to play organized (association) football, per FIFA rules. Article 19 directly addresses the foreign players under the age of 16, in some cases under 18.

For three weeks, Nanno was in the sidelines. He was allowed to practice with the team; but, come game day, he wasn’t even allowed to dress up. His team invited him to sit on the sideline and watch the game, probably because they needed me as the team delegate to help out. I did it with joy. But I must say, it broke my heart to see my son in the sideline. He practiced hard all week. He gave it all for the sport, but FIFA stole a piece of his heart. He lost a big piece of his love for football.

FIFA needs to amend, change, or drop ARTICLE 19. It is hurting and breaking the hearts of thousands of children in Spain and other parts of the world. Understandably, the rule was meant to curtain child trafficking in the football world, but FIFA’s wide net is catching thousands of children who just want to play the beautiful game. FIFA needs to focus on their own internal scandals before throwing out wide nets that are violating the rights of many children to play football.