The Men Who Sell Football | Al Jazeera Investigations

This documentary reveals how English football clubs can be bought by convicted criminals and become vehicles to launder dirty money. The football dealmakers – who link foreign buyers with British football clubs – tell undercover reporters how they can hide a criminal’s money and identity behind offshore trusts and use “dirty tricks” to deceive the football authorities. Chris Samuelson, an offshore finance expert and Keith Hunter, a former Scotland Yard detective, also offer our fictitious criminal a new identity by purchasing an EU passport for 10m euro. Our undercover reporters reach the brink of striking a deal for the criminal investor to buy Derby County FC, one of England’s oldest football clubs. The Men who Sell Football is the prequel to the Bafta-nominated documentary, The Cyprus Papers Undercover, released in October 2020. Samuelson’s lawyers say that he was never told about Mr X’s criminal convictions. Had he known, he would have ended discussions immediately. Hunter says that he strongly disputes most of our findings.

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