O labiríntico mundo dos donos dos jogadores.

Notícia de 06/03/2013: "A venda da totalidade do passe de dois jogadores do Benfica B - o avançado João Mário Fernandes e o médio Luciano Teixeira, ambos de 19 anos - passou despercebida em Portugal.

A referência à "alienação em dezembro de 2012 de 100% dos direitos económicos" dos dois atletas, incluída na página 47 do recente Relatório e Contas (1º Semestre 2012/13) da Benfica SAD, no entanto, despertou a curiosidade de vários órgãos da comunicação social inglesa.

Segundo aquele documento, o adquirente - por Meuro 0,5 (ou 250 mil euros por cada jogador) - foi a sociedade britânica Robi Plus Limited, com sede em Londres. "O Benfica vendeu os direitos de dois adolescentes oriundos de um dos países mais pobres de África [Guiné-Bissau] a uma empresa britânica", lê-se num despacho da agência financeira Bloomberg, posteriormente retomado por vários jornais ingleses.

"Vendas deste tipo são proibidas pela Premier League e pela Ligue 1 francesa. Grande parte destes negócios é nublosa e pouco transparente e trata os jogadores como mercadorias, com os jovens atletas africanos e sul-americanos a serem particularmente vulneráveis a pressões", acrescenta. 

Contactado pela agência, o Benfica não fez qualquer comentário. O proprietário da Robi Plus, Maurizio Delmenico, afirmou, por sua vez, não estar em condições de acrescentar qualquer nota relativamente à operação. Esta sociedade, recorde-se, detém igualmente 10% dos passes dos jogadores do FC Porto Eliaquim Mangala e Steven Defour."  - O Jogo.

Notícia de 31/01/2012: "European soccer ruling body UEFA is asking U.K. authorities to investigate two so-called letterbox companies that helped Porto (FCP) fund a player transfer.

For Gool Co. and Pearl Design Holding Ltd. provided finance for the two-time European champion to sign Brazilian striker Walter da Silva for 6.2 million euros ($8.1 million) in 2010, according to Porto’s latest quarterly statement.

UEFA officials said this increases the risk of money laundering because it’s unclear who owns the letterbox companies, which have mailing addresses in the U.K. and seemingly nothing else.

Rochdale-based For Gool provided a 2 million-euro loan for Porto to sign Da Silva from Uruguay’s Club Atletico Rentistas and London-based Pearl Design bought 25 percent of the 22-year- old’s future transfer rights for 2.1 million euros, according to the Porto statement. Porto spokesman Rui Cerqueira didn’t return two e-mails and two telephone calls seeking comment.

Mark Quirk, a co-owner of For Gool’s parent company Kirkdelta Ltd., didn’t respond to letters sent to three business addresses on Jan. 11. Mario Queiroz, the only listed shareholder of Pearl Design, didn’t respond to an e-mail.

U.K. law allows small businesses to “completely hide” from view what they’re doing, said Richard Murphy, director of Norfolk, England-based Tax Research LLP and co-author of 2009 book “Tax Havens: How Globalization Really Works,” which describes how some companies conceal financial transactions.

Another U.K. company, Robi Plus Ltd., owns 10 percent of the transfer rights of two Porto players, Eliaquim Mangala and Steven Defour, the team said in a Dec. 27 statement.
Robi Plus is a so-called bearer share company whose director is Maurizio Delmenico, according to Companies House filings. The holder of the share certificate of a bearer-share company is the recognized owner. It’s a way of shielding the ownership structure, Murphy said.

Delmenico, a player agent and tax adviser, said by telephone from his office in Lugano,Switzerland, that the company is his own and he set it up in the U.K. because some of its affairs, including brokering player trades, are based there.

Stock market-listed Porto reported a profit in each of the past five fiscal years, partly by trading players it developed to bigger clubs. It had net income of 534,000 euros on sales of 89.8 million euros in the year ended June 30, according to a financial statement.

Letterbox companies raise the possibility of a conflict of interest, according to Andrea Traverso, UEFA’s head of club licensing. Traverso oversees so-called financial fair play rules that UEFA is introducing to stop clubs from overspending and also to increase transfer-market transparency.

“Who is actually controlling these players?” Traverso said. “Is it the club or the companies? It would be very interesting to know.” - in Bloomberg.