Post by QPR Report on Jan 28, 2009 9:43:18 GMT
David Conn/The Guardian
Manchester City, Milan, Kaka and the Joorabchian link
A statement on the website of Silvio Berlusconi throws intriguing light on workings of the deal that nearly was
The implications may have been lost in translation, the detail swamped by the size of Manchester City's bid for Kaka, but reports, here and around the world, that Kia Joorabchian was involved in the proposed deal carried extremely serious potential consequences for City. In the massive global coverage of the largest deal, £91m, ever to be discussed for a footballer, Joorabchian was routinely described as an "agent" or a "mediator" taking part in the discussions between City and Milan.
The report which officially revealed that Milan were talking to City, carried on the Mediaset website – part of the Milan owner Silvio Berlusconi's communications empire – stated: "To open the negotiations for the Brazilian star, City managing director Garry Cook arrived from Manchester with two representatives of Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, City's owner … Kia Joorabchian, an independent mediator from Sports Investment, was also present. It was a high-powered meeting for what could become the biggest transfer in the history of football."
The potential difficulty for City is that Joorabchian is not a licensed agent. English clubs are prohibited by the Football Association, in the strongest terms, from involvement with unlicensed agents at any stage of a proposed transfer.
Last June, Luton Town were docked 10 points by the FA for irregularities including having dealt with unlicensed agents when signing four players. The club have complained that the penalty was too harsh but the FA has insisted it must remain tough in this area. Anybody involved with transfers (apart from qualified lawyers) must have the official FA licence, so that they are subject to FA jurisdiction and the regulations governing transfers, in which huge sums of money flow between clubs and agents and around the world.
The FA last summer sent all Premier League, Football League and Blue Square Premier clubs a list of people it believed were or had been involved in transfers without being licensed agents. Earlier this month the FA sent another confidential memo, re-emphasising the prohibition on unlicensed agents and naming 24 men the FA said are or may have been operating "in transfer-related activity" without a licence. The memo, which the Guardian has seen, stated: "'Agency Activity' means acting in any way and at any time in the capacity of agent, representative or adviser to a club or player, either directly or indirectly, in the negotiation, arrangement, registration or execution of any Transaction [transfer/player signing]."
The FA's regulations do not limit the definition of "agency activity" to representing players or clubs, or negotiating deals, but include: "Introducing players to clubs (or vice versa)"; "Advising clubs in relation to contracts"; "Discussing the terms of possible deals with players or clubs"; and "Facilitating a transaction by discussing the availability of a player with a club."
Despite widespread description of Joorabchian as an "agent", and reports linking him with City's negotiations for Kaka and previously with the signings of the Brazilians Robinho and Jo, he was not included in either of the FA's lists of unlicensed agents. City, and sources close to Joorabchian, argue that the reports have misread his involvement, which at no stage has amounted to agency activity. As Joorabchian has chosen not to qualify for an agent's licence (which entails passing a multiple-choice exam and taking on insurance for around £5,000 a year), he understands that he cannot introduce City to a player or facilitate or discuss a deal.
Neither City nor Joorabchian were prepared to say precisely what his role was in the Kaka discussions, but they were clear it did not constitute agency activity. Advisers can work with clubs or players on merchandising and commercial rights, which is not classed as agency work.
City denied that Joorabchian played any part in introducing the club to Milan with a view to signing Kaka. Cook, City's executive chairman, said: "City made its approach and bid to sign Kaka directly to Milan with vice-president Adriano Galliani. The club did not need and did not seek the involvement of Kia Joorabchian to facilitate in those negotiations."
Whatever he said or did, Joorabchian's presence at that meeting illustrates how remarkable, and rapid, his rise has been in the power centres of football. An Iranian-born businessman said to speak five languages, Joorabchian stepped into football in 2004 when a company of which he was then a director, MSI, took over the management of a Brazilian club, Corinthians.
Joorabchian has said he became disillusioned with the way Corinthians were run financially and he resigned from MSI; the club went bust shortly afterwards. Joorabchian had discovered more money could be made "owning" players' economic rights than clubs themselves – the Argentinian stars Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano had been bought, by investors, from Boca Juniors and River Plate and loaned to Corinthians.
Joorabchian was an obscure figure here when, just two and a half years ago, Tevez and Mascherano were sensationally loaned to West Ham, with Joorabchian representing investors in the offshore companies which still "owned" the players.
The Premier League has since banned third-party ownership, following the Tevez affair, but it remains common in South America, where investors buy the rights of promising young players. Joorabchian represents investors – unnamed – now understood to own the rights to 60 or 70 players across Europe and South America. His activities, though, have widened way beyond "the rights business", his contacts book burgeoning while he has stayed closely in touch with the game and the much-coveted players of Brazil.
He developed strong connections with Manchester City last year; club sources said he and Pini Zahavi, the Israeli licensed agent, came to know Pairoj Piempongsant, Thaksin Shinawatra's right-hand man at City. Cook was appointed by Thaksin's regime – some even say Joorabchian offered advice then, given his strong contacts through the Brazil national team with Nike, where Cook was working.
While Joorabchian and City would not comment on the role he played while the Kaka signing was being discussed, Joorabchian's presence at the meeting between City and Milan, when football's biggest ever deal was being proposed, demonstrates how his star has risen. Yet because he is not a licensed agent, he was not able to introduce or facilitate the deal, and could not in the meeting discuss the terms of any proposal, advise either side, or act as a "mediator", whatever the statement on Berlusconi's website.
www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2009/jan/28/kaka-manchester-city-milan-kia-joorabchian
Manchester City, Milan, Kaka and the Joorabchian link
A statement on the website of Silvio Berlusconi throws intriguing light on workings of the deal that nearly was
The implications may have been lost in translation, the detail swamped by the size of Manchester City's bid for Kaka, but reports, here and around the world, that Kia Joorabchian was involved in the proposed deal carried extremely serious potential consequences for City. In the massive global coverage of the largest deal, £91m, ever to be discussed for a footballer, Joorabchian was routinely described as an "agent" or a "mediator" taking part in the discussions between City and Milan.
The report which officially revealed that Milan were talking to City, carried on the Mediaset website – part of the Milan owner Silvio Berlusconi's communications empire – stated: "To open the negotiations for the Brazilian star, City managing director Garry Cook arrived from Manchester with two representatives of Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, City's owner … Kia Joorabchian, an independent mediator from Sports Investment, was also present. It was a high-powered meeting for what could become the biggest transfer in the history of football."
The potential difficulty for City is that Joorabchian is not a licensed agent. English clubs are prohibited by the Football Association, in the strongest terms, from involvement with unlicensed agents at any stage of a proposed transfer.
Last June, Luton Town were docked 10 points by the FA for irregularities including having dealt with unlicensed agents when signing four players. The club have complained that the penalty was too harsh but the FA has insisted it must remain tough in this area. Anybody involved with transfers (apart from qualified lawyers) must have the official FA licence, so that they are subject to FA jurisdiction and the regulations governing transfers, in which huge sums of money flow between clubs and agents and around the world.
The FA last summer sent all Premier League, Football League and Blue Square Premier clubs a list of people it believed were or had been involved in transfers without being licensed agents. Earlier this month the FA sent another confidential memo, re-emphasising the prohibition on unlicensed agents and naming 24 men the FA said are or may have been operating "in transfer-related activity" without a licence. The memo, which the Guardian has seen, stated: "'Agency Activity' means acting in any way and at any time in the capacity of agent, representative or adviser to a club or player, either directly or indirectly, in the negotiation, arrangement, registration or execution of any Transaction [transfer/player signing]."
The FA's regulations do not limit the definition of "agency activity" to representing players or clubs, or negotiating deals, but include: "Introducing players to clubs (or vice versa)"; "Advising clubs in relation to contracts"; "Discussing the terms of possible deals with players or clubs"; and "Facilitating a transaction by discussing the availability of a player with a club."
Despite widespread description of Joorabchian as an "agent", and reports linking him with City's negotiations for Kaka and previously with the signings of the Brazilians Robinho and Jo, he was not included in either of the FA's lists of unlicensed agents. City, and sources close to Joorabchian, argue that the reports have misread his involvement, which at no stage has amounted to agency activity. As Joorabchian has chosen not to qualify for an agent's licence (which entails passing a multiple-choice exam and taking on insurance for around £5,000 a year), he understands that he cannot introduce City to a player or facilitate or discuss a deal.
Neither City nor Joorabchian were prepared to say precisely what his role was in the Kaka discussions, but they were clear it did not constitute agency activity. Advisers can work with clubs or players on merchandising and commercial rights, which is not classed as agency work.
City denied that Joorabchian played any part in introducing the club to Milan with a view to signing Kaka. Cook, City's executive chairman, said: "City made its approach and bid to sign Kaka directly to Milan with vice-president Adriano Galliani. The club did not need and did not seek the involvement of Kia Joorabchian to facilitate in those negotiations."
Whatever he said or did, Joorabchian's presence at that meeting illustrates how remarkable, and rapid, his rise has been in the power centres of football. An Iranian-born businessman said to speak five languages, Joorabchian stepped into football in 2004 when a company of which he was then a director, MSI, took over the management of a Brazilian club, Corinthians.
Joorabchian has said he became disillusioned with the way Corinthians were run financially and he resigned from MSI; the club went bust shortly afterwards. Joorabchian had discovered more money could be made "owning" players' economic rights than clubs themselves – the Argentinian stars Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano had been bought, by investors, from Boca Juniors and River Plate and loaned to Corinthians.
Joorabchian was an obscure figure here when, just two and a half years ago, Tevez and Mascherano were sensationally loaned to West Ham, with Joorabchian representing investors in the offshore companies which still "owned" the players.
The Premier League has since banned third-party ownership, following the Tevez affair, but it remains common in South America, where investors buy the rights of promising young players. Joorabchian represents investors – unnamed – now understood to own the rights to 60 or 70 players across Europe and South America. His activities, though, have widened way beyond "the rights business", his contacts book burgeoning while he has stayed closely in touch with the game and the much-coveted players of Brazil.
He developed strong connections with Manchester City last year; club sources said he and Pini Zahavi, the Israeli licensed agent, came to know Pairoj Piempongsant, Thaksin Shinawatra's right-hand man at City. Cook was appointed by Thaksin's regime – some even say Joorabchian offered advice then, given his strong contacts through the Brazil national team with Nike, where Cook was working.
While Joorabchian and City would not comment on the role he played while the Kaka signing was being discussed, Joorabchian's presence at the meeting between City and Milan, when football's biggest ever deal was being proposed, demonstrates how his star has risen. Yet because he is not a licensed agent, he was not able to introduce or facilitate the deal, and could not in the meeting discuss the terms of any proposal, advise either side, or act as a "mediator", whatever the statement on Berlusconi's website.
www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2009/jan/28/kaka-manchester-city-milan-kia-joorabchian