Football clubs with opaque ownership structures were more than three times as likely to receive sporting penalties and over nine times as likely to be linked to criminal investigations or charges, according to a study examining Italian football.
The research, titled “The Dark Side of the Ball: Crime, Financial Misconduct and Opacity of Club Ownership in Football,” was conducted by Francesco Addesa of Leeds Beckett University and Michele Riccardi of Università Cattolica and its Transcrime research centre. Published in the Journal of Economic Criminology, it examined ownership transparency and financial and judicial irregularities across more than 250 clubs in Italy’s Serie A, B, C and D.
For the 2025-26 season, the researchers identified 27 people or entities at the top of ownership chains that did not reveal the individuals ultimately holding the economic interests. These structures spanned 62 jurisdictions, including 26 of the 30 ranked as the most financially secretive by the Tax Justice Network. Twenty of the opaque owners directly or indirectly controlled Italian football clubs. The study said the pattern also affected lower divisions and included a significant presence of US investors.
The researchers tracked 265 clubs from the 2022-23 season, examining sporting penalties, league exclusions and legal cases over the following three years. Clubs with opaque ownership received sporting penalties in 29.4% of cases, compared with 9.7% among those with transparent structures. Exclusions from competitions affected 29.4% of opaque-ownership clubs and 12.1% of transparent ones. Criminal investigations or charges involving senior figures were recorded in 52.9% of opaque-ownership cases, against 5.6% for other clubs.
Riccardi stressed that opaque ownership is not, by itself, illegal. However, he said the study indicated a close relationship between opacity, administrative misconduct and criminal risks. He added that financially struggling clubs might attract opaque investment, while capital of unknown origin could contribute to financial irregularities and instability.
Sources: ANSA Sport.