Fake invitation to teach football brings Senegalese teen to PHL

A Senegalese teen has been duped into flying to the Philippines to teach in a football clinic that turned out to be non-existent, GMA News' Athena Imperial reported on Balitanghali on Wednesday.

The victim, 17, was invited by an alleged representative from the Embassy of Saudi Arabia in the Philippines to teach at a football clinic at the Rizal Memorial Stadium and McKinley Hills in Taguig for a fee.

"P150,000 'yung sinabi niyang binayad niya, pati sa hotel accommodation pero wala siyang hotel accommodation dahil walang sumundo sa kanya," Jaime Estrella, airport police, said.

The Philippine Azkals, a partner of the football clinic the teen was invited to, affirmed that the letter invitation was not legitimate.

"Nagdududa nga po ako at minor nga ito and under the rules of FIFA, they're so strict in recruiting minors for clubs," Azkals Team Manager Dan Palami said. "Hindi po nagre-recruit ang Azkals ng 'di Pilipino. So isang red flag."

Police also discovered that the letter contained typographical errors, and used different fonts and font sizes.

The parental authorization form sent with the document was verified as fake while the hotel indicated in the reservation form sent to the teen confirmed that the victims had no reservations with them.

Only the plane tickets sent to the victim, whose family had to sell an animal to enable his travel to the Philippines, turned out to be real.

The teen has been staying at the arrival area of NAIA Terminal 1 since his arrival on October 12 via the Ethiopian Airline Flight ET-628. His return flight is set on November 10.

The report said he will stay inside the airport police station until his flight home. —Rie Takumi/KBK, GMA News