A Virginia soccer coach has been accused of scamming families out of $60,000 for a summer camp in Italy that never happened

A soccer coach in Northern Virginia faces 26 criminal charges for allegedly scamming young athletes and their families out of $60,000.

As NBC4 Washington reports, Ahmed Mohamed, who created the Sporting Soccer Academy, was reportedly arranging a trip for his students to participate in a summer camp in Italy, according to the Fairfax County police.

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But the trip never happened.

“Mohamed collected money from victims under the false pretense of promised travel, camp arrangements and lodging,” county police said in a statement shared with NBC4 Washington.

Alexandria Soccer Association condemns Mohamed

In late June, Fairfax County police received multiple reports about Mohamed, who started the Sporting Soccer Academy in December 2025. After receiving the reports, county police believed there were only 13 victims, but four more reportedly came forward after the investigation was announced.

“It seemed he had built relations with the victims, ultimately. When he opened his own business, it, on paper, was a legitimate LLC,” Lt. Michael Connor told NBC4 Washington. “And then he used that LLC to defraud the victims.”

According to the investigation, each victim and their families gave Mohamad anywhere between $2,000 and $12,000 for the trip. Mohamed was arrested on June 30 and charged with 13 counts of computer fraud and 13 counts of embezzlement.

According to the investigation, Mohamed’s employment with the Alexandria Soccer Association (ASA) was a factor that made him appealing to some of the alleged victims and their families. The ASA is a local youth league that runs soccer academies for players of all ages, with many professional coaches offering their guidance, the Washington Examiner reports.

The ASA caters to both children and adults, and NBC4 Washington wasn’t able to pin down the exact age group of the alleged victims. After learning about the investigation, the ASA released a statement and assured Mohamed is no longer employed with the association.

“The conduct that led to his arrest did not involve ASA or any of its programs or operations,” the Alexandria Soccer Association said in a statement shared with NBC4 Washington. “At the time of the alleged conduct, Mr. Mohamed was acting independently to promote his own private program offerings.”

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Concerning issues within youth sports

Alleged fraud within youth sports is not an issue that is unique to Northern Virginia. In Texas, for example, several viewers recently reached out to KPRC 2 to report suspicious cases of questionable financial practices in their youth sports leagues.

One of the cases centered around the Oak Dad’s Club, a non-profit youth sports organization in Houston. As KPRC 2 reports, the organization’s president was relieved of their duties in 2025 after some expressed concerns over a potential misuse of funds.

And over in Lake Jackson, the treasurer for a girl’s softball association was accused of stealing tens of thousands of dollars and was charged with theft.

During the previous legislative session, State Representatives Ana-María Ramos and Jo Jones reportedly introduced a house bill that aims to create regulatory and licensing systems for youth sports. House Bill 816, which eventually “died in committee,” would have also created a system for reporting safety concerns and violations, KPRC 2 reports.

But the concerns around the integrity of youth sports programs don’t stop there. Since youth sports in America is now a $40 billion industry, with parents spending upwards of thousands of dollars each year for their kids to participate, leagues are now attractive to private investors, Stateline reports.

Anthony Delli Paoli, director of the Youth Sports Research Council at Rutgers University, believes private investors in youth sports could drive up the costs for families with athletic children. This, as he explained to Stateline, is a problem because families “have to take out a second mortgage or max out their credit cards in order to participate in sport.”

“There’s no good justification for locking in parents and families and driving up the costs,” Delli Paoli told Stateline. “That’s clearly an antitrust issue.”

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