By Mark Baber
May 29 – Manchester United have denied being linked to Traffic, the sports management form central to the corruption in South America and CONCACAF uncovered in recent days, whose academy they signed a deal with in 2008.
Reports in the UK press highlight that United deny having a link to Traffic Sports, despite Traffic showing Manchester United on their web site as a club partner.
Jose Hawilla, the owner and founder of the Brazil-based sports marketing company, has waived indictment and pleaded guilty to a four-count information charging him with racketeering conspiracy, wire fraud conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy and obstruction of justice and agreed to forfeit over $151 million, $25 million of which was paid at the time of his plea., according to the US prosecutors. In addition, as corporate entities Traffic Sports USA Inc. and Traffic Sports International Inc. pleaded guilty to wire fraud conspiracy on May 14, 2015.
A Manchester United spokesman is quoted as saying: “We are certainly not an official partner of theirs. We had an arrangement with Deportivo, a club they owned and which I think they have now sold, but we never had any financial arrangement with Traffic.”
“The arrangement with Deportivo was to send players over to us for trials. If they were good enough, we would have bought them from Deportivo.
“That arrangement was approved by the Premier League and the FA.”
The deal between the Traffic-owned Desportivo Brasil and Manchester United was controversial at the time chiefly because of the third-party ownership issue, with the Telegraph reporting at the time that “Manchester United have an exclusive player trading deal with a Brazilian team owned by a company which has interests in scores of footballers on terms similar to the third-party arrangement covering Carlos Tevez.”
However, the deal was pushed through under the watch of David Gill, Manchester United Chief Executive at the time, who somewhat ironically has this week protested that he would not serve as FIFA vice-president under Sepp Blatter because of the corruption issue.
Gill was due to take his position on FIFA’s executive committee for the first time this week, but has said if Blatter is re-elected he would not take his seat.
David Gill said of the deal at the time, “This is a fantastic opportunity for our coaches and Academy players. They will gain invaluable knowledge and experience from Desportivo. Brazilian football has always been consistent and we already have a strong Brazilian contingent at the club but this will forge an even stronger relationship.”
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