ML through the Football Sector.pdf

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Financial Action Task Force
Groupe d’action financière
FATF Report
Money Laundering through
the Football Sector
July 2009
THE FINANCIAL ACTION TASK FORCE (FATF)
The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) is an independent inter-governmental body that develops and promotes
policies to protect the global financial system against money laundering and terrorist financing.
Recommendations issued by the FATF define criminal justice and regulatory measures that should be
implemented to counter this problem. These Recommendations also include international co-operation and
preventive measures to be taken by financial institutions and others such as casinos, real estate dealers,
lawyers and accountants. The FATF Recommendations are recognised as the global anti-money laundering
(AML) and counter-terrorist financing (CFT) standard.
For more information about the FATF, please visit the website:
WWW.FATF-GAFI.ORG
© 2009 FATF/OECD. All rights reserved
No reproduction or translation of this publication may be made without prior written permission.
Applications for such permission, for all or part of this publication, should be made to
the FATF Secretariat, 2 rue André Pascal 75775 Paris Cedex 16, France
(fax +33 1 44 30 61 37 or e-mail: contact@fatf-gafi.org).
Money Laundering through the Football Sector – July
2009
TABLE OF CONTENTS
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ................................................................................................................4
INTRODUCTION ..............................................................................................................................5
Scope ..................................................................................................................................................5
Methodology .......................................................................................................................................6
CHAPTER 1: MONEY LAUNDERING AND SPORTS ..................................................................7
Which sports? .....................................................................................................................................7
Why football? .....................................................................................................................................8
CHAPTER 2: STRUCTURE OF THE FOOTBALL SECTOR.......................................................10
Football governance .........................................................................................................................10
Football finances...............................................................................................................................11
CHAPTER 3: VULNERABILITIES OF THE FOOTBALL SECTOR ...........................................14
Vulnerabilities related to the sector‟s structure ................................................................................14
Vulnerabilities related to the sector‟s finance...................................................................................15
Vulnerabilities related to the sector‟s culture ...................................................................................16
CHAPTER 4: CASES AND TYPOLOGIES ...................................................................................17
Ownership of clubs ...........................................................................................................................17
The transfer market and ownership of players..................................................................................20
Betting activities ...............................................................................................................................24
Image rights, sponsorship and advertising arrangements .................................................................26
Related illegal activities....................................................................................................................26
CHAPTER 5: OVERVIEW OF ANTI-MONEY LAUNDERING INITIATIVES..........................30
International and national public authorities ....................................................................................30
Sports organisations ..........................................................................................................................31
CHAPTER 6: POLICY IMPLICATIONS .......................................................................................36
Key findings .....................................................................................................................................36
Issues for consideration ....................................................................................................................37
REFERENCES .................................................................................................................................39
ANNEX – FATF QUESTIONNAIRE .............................................................................................41
© 2009 FATF/OECD
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Money Laundering through the Football Sector – July
2009
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
1.
Criminals have shown adaptability in finding new channels to launder the proceeds of their
illegal activities and sports is one of the many sectors that are at risk of being inflicted with criminal
money.
2.
With the growing economic importance of sports during the last two decades, especially football,
money gradually started to exert a strong influence on the world of sports. This influx of money has
positive effects, but also negative consequences.
3.
In order to get a better understanding, this study identifies vulnerabilities which make the football
sector attractive to criminals. These are mainly related to the structure, the financing and the culture of this
sector.
4.
The study analyses several cases that illustrate the use of the football sector as a vehicle for
laundering the proceeds of criminal activities. After this analysis, money laundering (ML) through the
football sector is revealed to be deeper and more complex than previously understood. Indeed, this analysis
appears to show that there is more than anecdotal evidence indicating that a variety of money flows and /
or financial transactions may increase the risk of ML through football. These are related to the ownership
of football clubs or players, the transfer market, betting activities, image rights and sponsorship or
advertising arrangements. Other cases show that the football sector is also used as a vehicle for
perpetrating various other criminal activities such as trafficking in human beings, corruption, drugs
trafficking (doping) and tax offences.
5.
The ML techniques used vary from basic to complex techniques, including the use of cash, cross
border transfers, tax havens, front companies, non-financial professionals and PEPs.
6.
In many cases, connections with other well-known ML typologies were identified such as trade-
based ML, the use of non-financial professionals and NPOs for ML purposes, ML through the security
sector, the real estate sector and the gaming sector.
7.
Various initiatives are taken by international and national actors in order to combat threats to the
integrity of football, including ML. Looking ahead, there appear to be a number of areas that could be
considered to improve the capacity to cope with the ML risks associated with the football sector.
4 -
© 2009 FATF/OECD
Money Laundering through the Football Sector – July
2009
INTRODUCTION
8.
In reaction to the increasing compliance of financial institutions all over the world with the
Financial Action Task Force (FATF) anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing standards,
criminals have shown adaptability in finding new channels to launder the proceeds of their illegal
activities. Simultaneously, the globalisation of financial markets and the development of information
technology have gradually boosted the criminal economy and have expanded the possibilities for economic
crime. In this context, there are growing concerns that various legitimate sectors are at danger of being
infected with criminal money.
9.
The sporting industry is one of the many sectors that could be attractive for criminals for money
laundering purposes and merits closer consideration given the large scope of monetary transactions and the
increase in the number of individuals involved.
10.
In order to get a better understanding of the process of money laundering, of ways in which
criminality can be connected with legal economic activities, and how criminal money finds its way into
legitimate businesses, the FATF decided in June 2008 to study on money laundering through the football
sector.
11.
The following countries joined the project team and contributed to the study: Argentina, Belgium
(as project co-leader), Brazil, France, Ireland (as project co-leader), Italy, the Netherlands (as project co-
leader), Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. The report was written with support from
the OECD sub-group on tax crimes and money laundering.
Scope
12.
The aim of this project is to study one specific sport which could reveal money laundering
schemes that may also be occurring in other sports. As one of the largest sports in the world, football
1
was
chosen. Both professional and amateur football were to be examined. Although the scale of vulnerabilities
to money laundering is potentially different, risks in both areas were considered likely to be similar.
13.
On the other hand, the title of the project was broadened from „clubs‟ to „sector‟ because
focussing on clubs was too narrow. Vulnerabilities not only occur within clubs but concern also other
important stakeholders within the football industry. For these reasons, the original scope of the project
„money laundering through sporting clubs‟ consequently has turned into „money laundering through the
football sector‟.
1
The term
football
is used in different ways in different parts of the English-speaking world. The name
soccer
(or
soccer football)
was originally a slang abbreviation of the word
association
from
association football
and is now
the prevailing term in the United States, Canada, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. Of the 45 national FIFA
affiliates in which English is an official or primary language, only three (Canada, Samoa and the United States)
actually use
soccer
in their organisations' official names, while the rest use
football.
© 2009 FATF/OECD
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