Club football "is wide open to criminal ownership," money launderers, third-party ownership groups and sports betting "fraudsters," a report published last week claimed, according to Paul Nicholson of INSIDE WORLD FOOTBALL. The report, titled "Legal, Financial and Integrity Aspects of Club Ownership in Football," was the first phase of a global study jointly undertaken by the Int'l Association of Lawyers (UIA) in partnership with the ICSS INSIGHT and the Sport Integrity Global Alliance. A team of lawyers from 25 countries "found that only three countries have a dedicated body that has specific oversight of investment and ownership in its football clubs" and only two nations are able to "fully track and monitor the money behind club investments and ownership." The report's key findings include:
- While 83% of countries "have an obligation under national legislation to disclose club owners/investors’ identities," only the U.K., the Netherlands, Spain and Switzerland "have some kind of structure/process with a role to monitor and control."
- Only five countries (Brazil, the U.K., France, Portugal and Ukraine) require by law the obligation to "fully disclose club owners/investors in both professional and non-professional football clubs."
- England and Italy are the only two countries that have a "fit and proper person" testing requirement in place for club owners/investors. The majority, 70% of countries surveyed, do not have such a validation process (INSIDE WORLD FOOTBALL, 11/5).
