FA warned it must confront money-laundering in football

Governing bodies have been urged to work more closely with the Government and authorities after professional football was added to the EU’s money-laundering risk watchlist.

The European Commission said this week that the complex structure and lack of transparency in the game “created a fertile ground for the use of illegal resources”. They added that “questionable sums of money with no apparent or explicable financial return or gain are being invested in the sport”.

The Commission’s report into money-laundering identified football, along with 47 other goods and services, as an area that could be exploited by criminals.

Unified approach needed

Darren Bailey, who spent seven years as the Football Association’s director of football governance and regulation, has warned that a more unified approach is necessary to prevent the game being used for financial exploitation. “Sport has not been fully closed to money-laundering and exploitation,” Bailey said. “Clearly, sport and public agencies need to work more closely together and share information to tackle these threats.”

Money-laundering in football includes match-fixing and investments into clubs. In recent years, billions of pounds have poured into English clubs, and others across Europe, from new owners.

Highly complex deals are struck, with tens or hundreds of millions of pounds often not effectively accounted for.

“In order to maintain the competitive and financial integrity of sport, as well as protecting the public from crime, there also needs to be a more sports-specific approach to data and information sharing,” Bailey said.

“Governments and public agencies need to recognise the unique characteristics of sport before implementing an approach to fully tackle corruption and financial misconduct.”