On 19 June 2024, the AML Package, containing, among other long-awaited pieces of legislation, the AMLR, has been finally published in the Official Journal of the European Union.

Among other things, the AMLR has extended the scope of application of AML rules – rules originally designed for banking and financial intermediaries – to football agents and professional football clubs.

The European Commission, in its 2022 Report on the assessment of the risk of money laundering and terrorist financing affecting the internal market, noted that “[l]ike many other businesses, sport has been used by criminals to launder money and derive illegal income. Football, being by far the most popular sport in the world, is an obvious candidate.” It is then the AMLR itself that recognises how “the considerable sums, cash flows and financial interests involved, the prevalence of cross-border transactions, and the sometimes opaque ownership structures” (Recital (24) of the AMLR) indeed expose professional football clubs and agents to risks of money laundering.

Football agents and professional football clubs

A football agent is a natural or legal person who, for a fee, provides intermediary services and represents football players or professional football clubs in negotiations with a view to concluding a contract for a football player or represents professional football clubs in negotiations with a view to concluding an agreement for the transfer of a football player.

Professional football clubs are legal persons that are, own or manage a football club that has been granted a licence and participates in the national football leagues in a Member State and whose players and staff are contractually engaged and are remunerated in exchange for their services. Those clubs are included in the scope of application of the AMLR only in respect of transactions with (i) an investor, (ii) a sponsor, (iii) football agents or other intermediaries, and (iv) for the purpose of a football player’s transfer.

The AMLR grants the Member States the possibility to exempt from the requirements set out in the AMLR, in full or in part, on the basis of the proven low risk posed by the nature and scale of operation of professional football clubs:

• participating in the highest division of the national football league (e.g., Italian Serie A or French Ligue 1) and having a total annual turnover of less than EUR 5,000,000 for each of the previous two calendar years;

• participating in a division lower than the highest division of the national football league.

Obligations

Football agents and professional football clubs as defined above will be required, among other things, to comply with AML requirements, including the obligation to have in place policies, procedures and controls, proportionate to the nature of their business, to carry out customer due diligence on partners and counterparties, to monitor transactions on an ongoing basis, to carry out adequate record-keeping and comply with reporting obligations. In particular, they will be required to report suspicious transactions to the competent Financial Intelligence Units (FIU).

Next steps

While the rest of the AMLR will apply from 10 July 2027, the obligations referred to football agents and professional football clubs will apply from 10 July 2029. Given that this extension to the football sector will impact entities and persons who have never before had to comply with AML requirements, the next few years will be crucial in setting-up the necessary processes and procedures to comply with the numerous, sometimes burdensome, obligations.