AP - FIFA cracks down on corruption in player transfers
GENEVA (AP) -An online anti-corruption project tracking the flow of money involved in player transfers will be used by all 208 football nations within a year, FIFA said Tuesday.
The Transfer Matching System is key to the global governing body's efforts to eliminate rogue agents, illegal payments and money laundering from football as billions of dollars change hands each season.
FIFA legal director Marco Villiger said the system was the "most thrilling'' administrative project the organization has undertaken.
"Whenever an international transfer is made all the relevant data from the transfer will have to be entered into a Web-based system,'' Villiger said in a conference call with reporters.
Clubs which flout the system could be kicked out of competitions and banned from buying and selling players, while FIFA and national associations can expel officials or agents from the game.
"It is clear that these sanctions must be harsh,'' Villiger said.
FIFA has been anxious to tighten transfer regulations after discovering that most deals involved unlicensed operators taking a commission.
Its Zurich headquarters has also been deluged in paperwork during peak trading times as buying and selling clubs faxed details of their deals.
"The system as it is now does not work and we realized this,'' Villiger said.
The 208 national associations are responsible for licensing agents but Villiger said there were problems in all continents and it had been "extremely difficult'' to monitor all agents' work.
"No club will inform FIFA that they did the transfer with unlicensed agents,'' Villiger said. "If one club would lodge a complaint then he also risks the investigation will involve him and that also he will have to prove he never had contact with unlicensed agents.''
Transfer matching was introduced as a pilot scheme in January 2008, and is currently used by more than 100 associations - including all major European countries - and more than 1,000 clubs.
Each is asked to input the amount of money spent and received, commissions paid and details of all bank accounts involved.
"It will give us the opportunity to check in detail the transfers which will also lead to much more transparency,'' Villiger said.
Associations have been set a March 2010 deadline to adopt the system.
Villiger said clubs and agents could still choose to evade it but the governing body was prepared to start criminal proceedings.
"FIFA is providing the state authorities - be it Interpol or criminal prosecutors - with data if we see something which sounds, or looks, fishy or dodgy within the transfer matching system,'' he said.
Electronic transfer matching is part of FIFA's wider strategy to monitor the movement of all players around the world.
A new committee will begin work in October to rule on all proposed international transfers involving under-18 players.
While FIFA president Sepp Blatter favors a ban on all such transfers, European labor laws allow for 16- and 17-year-olds to cross borders near their home or if their parents move to a new job.
FIFA also requires club-run and private training academies to register with a national association, or for young players to register independently.
sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/soccer/wires/07/14/2080.ap.soc.fifa.transfers.0522/index.html 
