Athlete Transfers, Fake Agents, and Youth Players - Football's Criminal Loopholes
United Nations report shows how organized crime finds new ways to exploit long-known weaknesses in football.
Crime adapts faster than any industry, and organized networks exploiting sports are no exception. From laundering money through football transfers to trafficking and exploiting young players, familiar weak spots in sports have turned into playgrounds for criminal innovation.
A recent report from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) pulls no punches, exposing how these criminal practices continue to evolve—even in countries with strong anti-corruption track records.
Sports and Crime Briefing dives into the most pressing findings of Game Over: Exposing the Linkages between Corruption, Serious and Organized Crime in Sports to reveal how criminal influence continues to reshape sports integrity worldwide.
1. Athlete Transfers Loophole Gets Bigger
The report emphasizes how athlete transfers, particularly in football, continue to as ideal avenues for laundering illicit funds. With vast financial flows that lack transparency, transfers are often used by organized criminal groups to "clean" their money. For example, agent fees alone in football generated nearly $700 million in 2022-2023, much of which is tied to shadowy financial transactions across borders.
Despite ample warnings over the years, the transfer market continues to enjoy minimal regulatory oversight. The use of shell companies and offshore accounts abounds, the UNODC found.
The lack of due diligence by certain clubs only worsens the problem, with funds often flowing through complex laundering schemes involving multiple companies and jurisdictions. Transfer funds that appear legitimate often end up traced back to countries across the Baltic region, East Asia, and the Middle East.
And that’s when the transfers themselves are not faked. FC Barcelona almost paid 1 million euros in July 2022 to a man posing as Pini Zahavi, agent for Polish striker Robert Lewandowski.

The abuse of football transfers by organized crime is hardly new, but is highly indicative of how football clubs are not abiding by existing agreements.
For example, FIFA banned third-party ownership of player’s economic rights in 2014 but, years later, effective enforcement of this ban is lacking. The Sports and Crime Briefing highlighted a case in 2022 when a Uruguayan drug lord was able to transfer players and coaches from Paraguay to Greece in highly suspicious circumstances.
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