HMRC investigations into football net extra £110m Sport Business HMRC investigations into the UK’s football industry netted the organisation an extra £110m last season, new data has claimed. A total of 68 tax investigations were opened in the year to April across players, clubs and agents – down on 118 from the previous accounting period – and netted an extra £110m for HMRC coffers, [...]
Jonathan Barnett: Gareth Bale’s former agent denies ‘sex slave’ claims in full Sport Business The British football super-agent who negotiated Gareth Bale’s world record transfer to Real Madrid, Jonathan Barnett, has denied any wrongdoing after a woman alleged he kept her as a “sex slave” and threatened to kill her. Barnett, 76, is the subject of a range of serious allegations made by an Australian woman in a US [...]
Fifa cheered by ECJ backing in agent fees row – but ‘far from unilateral win’ Sport Business Fifa has welcomed the qualified backing of its plan to cap football agents’ fees from a top judge at the European Court of Justice following legal challenges. The opinion issued by AG Nicholas Emiliou is not binding but offers an indication of the verdict that the ECJ may ultimately reach in a case with profound [...]
Fifa and football agents brace for ‘hugely significant’ day in war over fees May 11, 2025 The long-running conflict between Fifa and football agents over rules which seek to cap their commission payments will move a step closer to conclusion in the next few days. Football’s world governing body has, perhaps inevitably, received a huge backlash from agents who have sought to challenge their legality – and succeeded in having some [...]
Raiola Ratings, FPL gurus and €1m: What super agent’s family did next May 8, 2025 The larger-than-life, occasionally combustible figure of football super-agent Mino Raiola couldn’t have appeared further from the world of number-crunching and algorithms. The late transfer broker, whose clients included Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Paul Pogba and Erling Haaland, always seemed far more into pressing the flesh and pouring champagne than poring over data. But one strand of the [...]