European football clubs violated sanctions by making more than 30 transfers with Russian teams
Kyiv • UNN
European football clubs have made more than 30 transfer deals with Russian clubs totaling 66 million euros, potentially violating EU sanctions following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The deals involved teams such as Real Sociedad and PSV, with clubs linked to sanctioned individuals.
Despite Russia's aggression in Ukraine and sanctions against Russia, dozens of European football clubs have made transfer deals with Russian teams. In particular, such clubs as Real Sociedad, PSV, Olympique and Salzburg have bought and sold players belonging to football clubs owned by oligarchs or banks close to the Kremlin.
This was reported by UNN. with reference to El País.
Details
According to information of the publication, which refers to an international journalistic investigation, coordinated by the Dutch media outlet Follow the Money and, 18 players came to Europe in exchange for a total of 66 Europe in exchange for a total amount of 66 million euros paid to clubs that are clubs under restrictions or sent to European bank accounts linked to them or their owners: in them or their owners: in both cases, these transactions are prohibited by the European Commission and the Member States. In total, at least 28 teams have made 30 transfers with Russian clubs, despite the fact that sanctions prohibit doing business with people and companies close to Kremlin leader Putin or to make more than 100,000 euros in favor of any Russian person.
It is noted that these 30 transfer steps represent the vast majority of all those that that have taken place between European and Russian clubs since the beginning of the war, i.e. 45, in which, according to El País, involved 39 teams from the Old Continent. The players have moved to totaling 300 million euros have moved to and from Russia since the Kremlin's aggressive Kremlin's aggressive invasion of Ukraine.
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The investigation, which is exclusive to Spain, is in which thirteen media outlets, including Le Monde, Die Standard and EL PAÍS, reveals public data on the the transfer market, owners and managers of Russian teams. This data is compared with with the sanctions lists of Europe, the United States, and the United Kingdom. The findings of the investigation were discussed with dozens of experts, football federations and associations, as well as the European Commission.
Interestingly, among the of the listed transfers were transactions with clubs owned by state-owned banks, oil companies, Forbes millionaires, or even the head of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov, the leader of Chechnya. A number of European clubs, such as: Olympique Lyonnais, Red Bull Salzburg, Real Sociedad, Cadiz, Almeria and Elche, as part of these contacts, in in violation of EU rules, bought players.
These clubs may have violated sanctions: if a team is owned by an oligarch or a sanctioned entity, it can easily be considered a violation
Helen Over de Linden, a lawyer and expert on Russian sanctions, agrees with him, pointing out that such transfers are prohibited by the sanctions provisions.
The 30 cases listed above are problematic transfers in both directions. If the player is bought from a team that is subject to sanctions, as was the case with Spanish Real Sociedad and Elche, the payment itself will be prohibited. Even if the owners of the of the Russian team are not on international lists, the European rule on deposits makes it virtually impossible to make a payment and prohibits the transfer of to Russian individuals to a bank account in excess of 100,000 euros.
Problem with selling a player to a team whose owners are on European or North American lists (as in the cases of the Spanish clubs Almeria and "Cadiz), is that his assets must be frozen when he leaves Russia, should be frozen, the newspaper writes.
The publication also states that none of the Spanish clubs that have transferred players from Russia have not contacted the Ministry of of Economy, which is responsible for regulating sanctions in Spain, while the clubs are responsible for this themselves.
It is the responsibility of all people to comply with the obligations arising from European rules and to seek assistance to comply with them
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Addendum
European Commission says direct Commission states that direct payments to companies that depend on a sanctioned person are prohibited. are prohibited.
Any EU organization, including football clubs, may not provide funds or economic resources to other organizations owned or controlled by a sanctioned person
But it is also impossible not to pay for player is also impossible: according to the rules of UEFA, the supreme body of European football, professional teams should not be obligated to each other. In April 2022 In April 2022, UEFA sent a letter to the other federations to help them overcome the obstacle with Russian clubs: the team must prove that it has done everything possible to to pay, and, as a safety net, it can place the transfer in the hands of the national football association.
This is a choice given by UEFA to clubs can also be a problem, as a Russian individual or legal entity cannot have a European or legal entity cannot have more than 100 thousand euros in a European account, according to the the sanctions regulation.
Thus, out of the 18 of the 18 transfers analyzed in the investigation that involved the purchase of players from Russian clubs from European teams, none of them describes how the payment was made. payment was made. The only exception is PSV Eindhoven, which explained that it was following the instructions of UEFA. Since not paying was not an option, they had to somehow transfer the money to the Russian club's cashier.
