Big money in football makes it an attractive money-laundering opportunity for criminals, with player transfers, club ownership and betting all vulnerable to illegal activity, according to finance experts.
The report, by the Financial Action Task Force, comes at a time of growing concern among football authorities and politicians at the amount of money generated in the game.
European football’s transfer market this summer has already seen the two biggest ever deals, while England’s Premier League has been singled out for allowing foreign-based investors to buy up elite teams without proper scrutiny.
Football is vulnerable in three ways, according to the FATF, an offshoot of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
Firstly, it is an easy market to penetrate, with many stakeholders and money flows and clubs with weak management.
Secondly, clubs have major financial demands involving large sums of money and have little regard for where money originates and where it ends up.
Finally, players are socially vulnerable, while football’s exalted role in society and sport’s “illusion of innocence” creates a climate in which people are reluctant to report illegal activity. Football is also a way for criminals to acquire social respectability.
The FATF said there was a large number of unlicensed football agents handling transfer deals for players, escaping the strict rules of Fifa, football’s world governing body. Transfers often involve inducements to players to join new clubs, such as a house, a car or family arrangements, which are rarely included in the transfer contract.
Football’s relationship with betting was “ambiguous”, the report added, highlighting an investigation into possible match-fixing by Asian betting syndicates in top-flight European football.
Uefa, European football’s governing body, believes there is “an international network of organised crime behind certain European matches”, the report said.
There are also instances of football being used as a vehicle for human and drugs trafficking, corruption and tax offences.
The FATF highlighted more than 20 cases of money laundering after conducting a questionnaire in 25 countries.
Among these were an Italian criminal operation that attempted to provide money for the purchase of a famous club and one player in the UK who attempted to evade tax by accepting a £300,000 ($494,000) signing-on fee overseas.
Another player avoided paying tax in the UK through his new club paying money into his offshore image rights company.