Judicial Police believe some Portuguese football clubs used for money laundering
A leading Portuguese police inspector, who heads Portugal’s anti-corruption squad, says that the police are investigating how millions of euros that are invested in Portuguese football clubs come from shady origins.
Luís Ribeiro, coordinator of the National Anti-Corruption Unit of the Judicial Police (PJ), admitted that there are First League clubs that are used to launder illicit money, an issue that, he assured, is not ignored by the authorities.
It was during the Financial Integrity and Transparency in Sport forum, which took place last week in Lisbon, that Luís Ribeiro exposed a situation that he explained was recurrent in several countries from different geographies.
“We have had situations in some clubs with the inflow of capital clearly not identified as to its origin or as to the objectives of those who acquire a club,” he revealed.
The coordinator of the PJ unit that combats corruption revealed that “whenever large amounts are invested in Portuguese clubs, the authorities are alert and seek to know their origin. Unfortunately, clubs are used to launder proceeds of illicit origin, “he lamented.
Athletes’ image rights, he added, “that work without definite value,” are another issue that raises suspicions, as clubs spend money in a barely perceptible way “through commission payments without great clarity and with overvalued amounts.”
“We have overvalued or fictitious contracts, which serve only to justify the outflow of money and to allow the surplus to revert to other purposes,” he said.