Football money-laundering fears

By Michael Peel

Published: June 18 2008 23:30 Last updated: June 18 2008 23:30

Claims that football clubs and other sports team are being used as a conduit for money-laundering are to be investigated by the global watchdog on criminal fund flows.

The inter-governmental Financial Action Task Force last night agreed to investigate whether sporting clubs in Europe, the US and South America are used to process illicit money through investments and player transfers.

The project – which arrives neatly as the European football championship builds to a climax – is aimed at helping countries combat possible abuses in a sector that has come under increasing scrutiny as it has grown more lucrative and international.

Sir James Sassoon, taskforce president, said the project showed how the body was trying to “pick out things from across the waterfront that could present material vulnerabilities to the financial system”.

A London meeting of the taskforce – set up by the Group of Eight industrialised nations – gave final approval to a project that has attracted growing interest from its 34 members.

The push would see FATF produce toolkits on how to detect money laundered through sporting clubs for investigators, regulators and people in the private sector, Mr Sassoon said.

Officials at the meeting said the proposed focus on European football clubs had widened to cover teams and player transfers in South America and the finances of leading US sports.

One official said that while the report was not intended to name and shame clubs or individuals, it could be used to highlight problem countries and practices for national investigators to probe. “Any time you have organised sports – and big money is there – there may be a vulnerability. That’s what we are trying to find out,” he said.

The emergence of football on the agenda of the taskforce – whose other remits include the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction – is a sign of concerns raised by the influx of money to the game.

One high-profile case emerged in Brazil last year, over suspected money-laundering involving Russian and British nationals in connection with payments of $32.5m made to the Corinthians football club of São Paulo.

Concerns in Europe have included suspected illicit payments linked to the transfer market, investments from the former Soviet Union, and possible match-fixing by Asian betting syndicates.

Source: The Financial Times