Football clubs and agents are now subject to the preventive anti-money laundering law.
Operation clean hands in Belgian football revealed that the Belgian league unfortunately sometimes sets the scene for fraud. In the aftermath of this investigation, a promptly established expert commission considered solutions. One of the possible measures was to bring professional football under the preventive anti-money laundering law. On 15 July, a law was passed in the Chamber subjecting first division football teams and football agents to the anti-money laundering law.
The law of 18 September 2017 on the prevention of money laundering and terrorist financing and on the restriction of the use of cash is a transposition of the European anti-money laundering directive. The entities subject to the law have the duty, among other things, to subject their clients to customer due diligence and to report suspected money laundering operations to the financial information processing unit (CTIF-CFI).
Customer due diligence and reporting duty
The so-called know your customer principle entails that an individual risk assessment must be carried out for each client. Where appropriate, the ultimate beneficial owner must also be identified. The risk assessment takes into account the characteristics of the clients, products, services or transactions they offer, the countries involved, and the delivery channels used. The identification of the ultimate beneficial owner will have to be done by consulting the UBO register. When the subject entities cannot perform customer due diligence, they may not enter into a business relationship with the client. In addition, football teams and agents will now also have the duty to report suspicions and facts of money laundering to the CTIF-CFI.
If these obligations are not met, the clubs and agents can receive an administrative fine of up to 1,250,000 euros. Other sanctions are the withdrawal or suspension of a possible licence or even a professional ban. Moreover, any club or agent who is complicit in possible money laundering offences naturally runs the risk of being criminally sanctioned.
This measure is coupled with the creation of a clearing house. This body must map the financial transactions in Belgian football. The Pro League wants to prove with these interventions that it means business. Transparency must rid Belgian football of malicious situations.