For a top-rate salary of US$1,000 a month, Kenyan and other African athletes are being shopped around the world's wealthiest track and field nations in a market that one leading administrator said yesterday was “like trading slaves”.

“It is exploitation,” Isaiah Kiplagat, the president of the Kenyan athletics federation, said. “It is happening with children as young as 15. Young people who aren't qualified to represent themselves are being deceived into changing nationality for a few shillings.”

Qatar is the main destination and the best buyer. Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates have also bought up foreign athletes, but athletes' managers approach Europe, too.

José María Odriozola, the president of the Spanish federation, said that he is contacted five or six times a year by agents representing foreign athletes and offering them as potential Spaniards. He said that last year he even had Olusoji Fasuba, the Nigerian who won the 60 metres gold at the World Indoor Championships in Valencia last month, phone him and offer to switch vests and run for Spain.