Football's Secret Trade

Chapter 14The End Game?

In the meetings at FIFA headquarters in the weeks before the Baur au Lac raid, the Arsenal chief executive Ivan Gazidis had made a special request to the ruling body's legal chief Marco Villiger. Gazidis, an American with a friendly manner and annual compensation of £2 million, said it was “imperative” that investors and funds should not be able to buy small teams to enable them to carry on seeking profits in the transfer market. It appeared a call in vain. In England, where even third-tier clubs could attract 20,000 supporters to matches, fan pressure might help prevent this but in some parts of the world it was another matter. There was no rule in football that a club owner must chase trophies rather than financial profit.

Traffic executive Jochen Lösch freely admitted that the primary goal of the three teams they owned was financial gain. Desportivo Brasil played in the fourth tier of a regional state championship, posting clips on YouTube so that scouts of first-division clubs could track the progress of the teenagers. Despite having no fans, a framed Manchester United shirt above the reception desk and Nike swooshes adorning the two-bunk bedroom doors showed that the sports industry was watching carefully. Lösch explained to us Traffic's 2008 agreement with Manchester United. “The idea was, we scout players together, we put them in Desportivo, we share the costs and then we see how they develop,” Lösch said. “It makes no sense to bring the players ...