BERLIN - Libyan leader Moammar Khadafi blasted football as modern-day slavery and said the millions spent on the World Cup should be spent fighting poverty in developing countries, German sports agency SID reported Monday.
"FIFA has reactivated the slavery system and the trade in human beings from Africa to Europe and America, and from Latin America to Europe," the dictator and avid football fan said.
"The children of poor countries have become the slaves of the rich ones."
Football's governing body is not doing enough to fight racism in the game, he added.
The Libyan national team, the Greens, have never reached the World Cup, coming closest in the leadup to the 1986 event in Mexico before losing to Morocco.
However, Khadafi's third son, Al-Saadi Khadafi, 33, formerly captain of the national team and president of the Libyan Football Federation, is one of a multitude of African players that have been lured to Europe.
He joined Italian Serie A team Perugia in 2003 where, after just one game, he was banned from playing for three months after testing positive for the banned anabolic steroid nandrolone.
The striker was also a board member of Juventus, through Libyan Arab Foreign Investment Company's 7.5 percent stake in the top Italian club, before resigning to join Perugia.
06/12/2006 18:26 GMT