The corrupt structures undermining the integrity of football always strip down to two criminalised sectors - football agents and market makers/ bookmakers.
In September, Football Leaks (https://footballleaks2015.wordpress.com/) started releasing documents relating to the Third Party Ownership (TPO) of footballers with focus on Portugal, Spain and England. Particularly targeted was the world's most influential agent - Jorge Mendes of Gestifute.
Football Leaks' first major success came with the banning of Twente Enschede for allowing player ownership by a shady Maltese company called Doyen Sports (http://www.doyensports.com/en/home.html). The KNVB banned Twente from European competition for three years and fined the club €42,250 resulting in the Dutch club's chairman Aldo van der Laan resigning over the issue of TPO.
Steve McClaren was manager of Twente when the Doyen Sports 'investment strategy' was undertaken (http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/16/sports/soccer/mysterious-website-aims-to-shed-light-on-soccer-dealings.html?ref=sports&_r=1).
As James Montague and Sam Borden say in the above article: "In other words, the arrangement put Twente in a position in which it had
an incentive, other than what was in the best interest of the club, to
sell key players so outsiders could profit."
McClaren, of course, is now manager of Mike Ashley's Newcastle United.
Football Leaks: "Based on the documents published by Football Leaks about Doyen Sports
there was the perception that the original investor would be Malik Ali,
but with a closer look at the following excel file we came to the
conclusion that there is a secret document and the real investor is
Refik Arif.
The money circuit began with the signing of a document on July 25, 2011,
where Refik Arif undertook to lend Malik Ali an amount not exceeding
100 million euros, with a seven years term and interest of 4,5% per
annum, as shown in the list.
All these documents show that TPO entities operate exactly as offshore
structures, there is no transparency and in most cases no one will ever
know the real investors!
https://mega.nz/#!cRpGVYKR!6Zf2-bPXuooueUtswHHTDvBkvA_WW37wC1BA1CpPjjI"
Initially, the response of the European Football Family was to appreciate Gestifute being knocked slightly off their pedestal of power but ####################################
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In mature and corrupt market sectors, psychopathic competitive behaviours are the norm until the sectors as a whole are threatened and then parties coalesce in a fragmented cartel of self interest.
Doyen (with input from other impacted parties) employed a two-bit security operation called Marclay Associates (MA) to hack into Football Leaks to terminate the operation.
MA are a joke. Founded by ex covert military intelligence operator Jake Hockley, the company has no turnover, limited assets and is run from the backroom of an estate agents in Walton on the Hill in Surrey, England.
MA's hacking skills leave a lot to be desired...
... Anonymous they are not.
MA was selected as Hockley used to be employed by Entourage Sports and Entertainment (http://www.entourage-global.com/) who work alongside Real Madrid, Porto and a South East Asian bookmaker. Additionally, ###################################################
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TPO was banned in the Premier League (and in Britain generally) after the Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano fiasco of 2006 when West Ham United breached EPL rules on TPO.
Yet Football Leaks have revealed that the practice continues at the highest levels of the English game.
The following current English-based players are third party-owned - Nicolás Otamendi and Eliaquim Mangala (Manchester City), Marcos Rojo (Manchester United), Radamel Falcao (Chelsea), Dusan Tadic and Cédric Soares (Southampton), Eric Dier (Spurs) and, unsurprisingly, Cheikhou Kouyaté of West Ham United. Additionally, Fulham's loaned out Greek international Konstantinos Mitroglou and current Brighton and Hove Albion transfer target Miller Bolanos are third party individuals.
This is illegal under Premier League and Football League rules.
Furthermore, Leicester City, AFC Bournemouth, Southampton and Sheffield Wednesday have contractual arrangements worthy of focus.
And, in Europe, Real Madrid, Atlético Madrid, Valencia, Granada, Monaco, Benfica, Sporting Lisbon, Porto etc etc are vehicles for TPO - remember Sergio Aguero refusing to change his agent to Gestifute in order to join Real Madrid?
Agents can destroy as well as make careers for clients - witness how Key Sports Management/Legion (KSM/L) have demolished Saido Berahino after he left to join Aidy Ward's agency. ##########################################################################
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TPO is a major issue as agents or fragmented cartels of agents can utilise their ownership of players to undertake matchfixing.
Let us look at four brief examples of problems relating to agents and betting markets.
1. The Manchester United v Real Madrid Champions League match of season 2012/13 was a match dominated by the inputs of Gestifute clients. The outcome was always in Gestifute's hands.
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2. Last night's La Liga match between Valencia and Real Madrid was virtually non-tradable without inside information. Gestifute represented a quarter of the players on the pitch including Pepe who gave away a penalty. In Spain, it is regarded as a major issue that Mendes has such influence over both these clubs.
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3. A different type of agent-based structure was exhibited in the Fulham versus Wigan Athletic Premier League match in season 2008/09 http://footballisfixed.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/happy-anniversary-to-roy-hodgson.html.
4. Returning to the present and Brighton and Hove Albion's attempts to purchase Miller Bolanos in the January transfer window. Brighton are owned by Tony Bloom, an ex-bookmaker, a professional gambler, a professional poker player, ########################################
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When Gus Poyet was manager of the club, he complained to us that Bloom required Brighton team information and other external information on global Uruguayan players at particular specific timings related to activities in the South East Asian betting markets...
... betting, insider trading and TPO seems to add up to a fit and proper person nowadays!
Football fans struggle with the concept of player loyalties being to their agent rather than their current club - kissing the badge is a marketing exercise as players are really kissing the hands of their offshore wealth management representatives.
Ronaldo recently bought Jorge Mendes a Greek island so we understand where his loyalties lie!
But it is a step further into the mire of the black market when players are owned by shady or entirely hidden investment operations.
Matchfixing is guaranteed in such structures.
There are links here to the SFA/Rangers corruptions in Scotland (http://footballisfixed.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/an-arranged-marriage-between-rangers.html), the Jonathan Moss/John Colquhoun MOBgate saga in England (http://footballisfixed.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/mobgate.html) and the current Cashopoli systemic matchfixing in the Premier League which, in part, was established to target Jorge Mendes client Jose Mourinho (http://footballisfixed.blogspot.co.uk/2015/12/bizarre-patterns-indicative-of-systemic.html).
What goes around comes around in the corrupted marketplaces of global football.
FOOTBALL IS FIXED!
Follow us on Twitter @FootballisFixed or at http://www.matchfixinganalytics.org/
Our book on systemic corruption and matchfixing in English and Scottish football will be published on November 11th 2016 - the tenth anniversary of this blog.
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