RUSI paper examines applying AML regulations to football following EU reforms
The Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) has published research examining whether the UK should extend Money Laundering Regulations (MLRs) to football, following the EU’s decision to bring professional football clubs, agents and associations into its Anti-Money Laundering (AML) framework from 2029. Drawing on policy analysis and a 2025 expert roundtable, the study finds that professional football is highly vulnerable to illicit finance because of opaque ownership structures, weak and inconsistent governance, loss-making business models and the scale of cross-border transactions. Criminal actors have used clubs to launder or generate illicit funds, exploited players with limited financial literacy and taken advantage of the opacity surrounding agents’ roles in high-value transfers and image-rights deals. Participants concluded that existing mechanisms, including FIFA’s recent transparency reforms, remain inadequate and that the absence of centralised intelligence leaves the sport exposed to significant financial crime risks.