Leaks show millions Malta-based firm made on footballer transfers

Leaked documents from one of the biggest firms investing millions in “soccer-player futures” are providing a glimpse into a secretive – and now banned – financing practice for the global sport, Bloomberg has revealed.

Malta-based Doyen Sports Investments is described as an investor that pays teams for “trading rights to select players, betting that the player’s trade value will rise. If that happens, Doyen realizes a profit when the player moves from one team to the next.”

FIFA, the governing body for world soccer, last year banned investors from buying stakes in future trading rights of players, the biggest part of Doyen’s business. The practice – called third-party ownership – started in South America and has spread to large parts of Europe, raising concerns about investors influence over the sport. Doyen has challenged the ban in court.

The documents have been released on Football_Leaks.com.

What the leaks show

Accounts for the second half of 2011 show how the company turn handsome profit on trading rights for footballers.

Doyen invested €25.6 million for trading rights for seven players: €10 million for a 33.3% stake in Colombian striker Radamel Falcao’s trading rights, for example. When he was traded two years later, the company netted a €4 million profit.

It paid €6 million in August 2012 to buy the global sponsorship rights of Barcelona and Brazil forward Neymar; and loaned €6.9 million to two Spanish teams, Atletico Madrid and Sporting de Gijon.

Based in Malta

Doyen Marketing is based in Sliema but its shareholders – Benington Group Assets and Wood, Gibbins & Partners – are hosted at the Ta’ Xbiex offices of Credence Holdings. They can benefit from tax optimisation advantages by getting refunds on taxes paid here for profits they book in their Maltese subsidiary.

Benington has a single shareholder, Turkish citizen Malik Ali, who was reported on Bloomberg as having loaned €54 million to Doyen. The remaining 20% of Doyen is owned by Wood, Gibbins & Partners.

The Doyen Group of London is currently awaiting the result of a lawsuit at the Court of Arbitration for Sport, after Portugal’s Sporting Clube refused to pay the fund profits it was due over the trade of Argentine defender Marcos Rojo to Manchester United. Sporting claims the contract with Doyen is abusive.

Also involved are Vela Management, whose director is Doyen CEO Claudio Tonolla.