2 things: a. The club can take steps to ensure that the deals it does with Bayat are clean and will not subject them to liability. It might not mean that they are able to avoid being defrauded but that’s another matter. Everton are not being sued for their Onyekuru deal with Mogi are they? b. Jorge Mendes and Mino Raiola - the two most prominent agents in the game - have both been investigated for various similar offences multiple times. Football agency is a disgusting and shady business. But if we want to sign players we will have to work with this lot. Do you have a blacklist of all agents who are being investigated for fraud and a list of those agents who you deem clean? I am open to the point just made that Raiola’s case is much less serious. But what about Mendes’? What about plenty of other agents? https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp....rched-again-in-money-laundering-investigation I find Mogi to be a loathsome character and would rather we didn’t do business with him. I am concerned by the investigation into him but don’t think it is going to cause any direct problems for the club and certainly not in the short-term.
I literally have no idea why you are asking me the questions you have in part B. It’s clear we won’t agree on this. Let’s hope you’re completely right about this. But I fear you are very very wrong. And I’m not saying it will cause us problems in the short-term (spending funds on potentially crap players aside) - I’m saying the fact we are dealing with him now (short term) could well cause us problems in the longer term.
I just wanted to add this article about Mogi based on the Belgian prosecutor’s court filings against him. It doesn’t make easy reading for sure (and you can all seem some familiar names there): https://www.rtbf.be/article/footgat...uet-federal-a-mogi-bayat-10917840?id=10917840 I am certainly uncomfortable and would rather we didn’t sign players through him. But I am not directly concerned about our liability due to our association with him. If we end up being liable for wrongdoing it is because Gino or Giaretta or whoever wilfully partook in the wrongdoing not just because they worked alongside Mogi to sign players. But he is obviously an unsavoury bloke and I’d rather steer clear of him. I’d rather not have any single agent have too much influence on our incomings because of the inherent conflict of interest between the agent and the club. Because agents are a critical function in the transfer market and shadiness amongst agents is endemic.
But we aren’t dealing on an almost exclusive basis with these other agents who don’t currently have major indictments hanging over them. So why would I show concern over something that isn’t happening? Whataboutism doesn’t really fly here. I agree with your outlook on the practice and ethics of agents. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be concerned about this one in particular any less.
Did it come back to bite Everton? Genuine question, I have no idea. I think it's pretty clear he's a bit of a scumbag, but as long as our hands are clean, and as long as he keeps up the decent hit rate he's had with us so far, I don't really care? Does him being involved in match fixing put us in future jeapordy because he's Imran Louza's agent?
Not as far as I am aware. However, I dont think there is any suggestion Everton were on notice of any wrongdoing. Furthermore, as far as I am aware it is the only deal they did with Mogi. This has now been rumbling on for a number of years with Mogi already arrested and bailed subject to conditions. We have been continuing to deal with him after these allegations came to light and after his arrest, and if anything we have probably stepped up our dealings with him.
Tbf whoever is in the scouting team must be doing a decent job as we're still unearthing South American gems, I'd say it's still one of the better things about Pozzo ownership tbf
You're right on all that but...so? As shady as it may seem, is there any suggestion whatsoever that we've done anything untoward?
Fun fact about Obbi Oulare: his dad Souleymane was a rather consequencial figure in the history of Stoke City: despite only playing twice because of a life-threatening illness, he scored the winner in a play-off semi on the way to promotion to the old Div 1 (the new Championship)...off his backside!
No. Not so far as I am aware. All I am saying is that as fans we should be slightly concerned that our clubs reaction to Mogi being arrested for transfer fraud is to throw £50m of transfer deals his way. A bit like Prince Andrew going to meet with his mate in the US after he had been arrested - it just doesnt look great.
Meh, football is a hellhole filled with everyone from scallywags to human rights abusers. I wish it wasn't that way, but it is. If business with Moogi improves Watford football club and we're not implicated in his crimes, then play ball, I say.
I dunno mate. I reckon it's because Gino falls for subliminal messaging. Everyone knows Bayat is Flemish for Buy-it.
However we may not be able to sign players for a few years with our recruitment partner in jail...and prices will never be lower.
I think its a bit different. This isn't a case where a dodgy individual from a foreign jurisdiction has been allowed by the FA to use his suspect funds to acquire a football club. This is a case where the criminality is directly related to football transfers. We are buying and selling players from a guy who has been indicted for committing fraud in relation to football transfers - and we have done our fair share of suspect deals with him in recent times (e.g. Sven Kums, Lukebakio) that have a farily similar factual matrix to the Onkeryu deal. Whether Watford are or will be implicated in any of it is frankly impossible to say, but I think it is quite reasonable to express concern at the level of involvement he has at the club.
One of the transfers listed here includes us but seemingly no wrongdoing on the part of the club (unlike with some of the other clubs listed). Just that for following Lukebakio’s transfer to Watford Mogi gave him brother Mehdi (who runs Charleroi who sold Dodi to us) a $55,000 watch as some sort of kickback. https://www.rtbf.be/article/footgat...uet-federal-a-mogi-bayat-10917840?id=10917840 Worth a read though as it shows the types of things he’s getting up to. Most involve defrauding the tax man by masking payments to players/agents or defrauding former clubs due a share of the profit by masking transfer fee amounts.
Not a great look 10 transfers listed on the indictment. 2 current/former Watford players and includes one transfer to Watford. Lukebakio's transfer to us forms part of the indictment and Samuel Kalu's transfer is is also listed there, including Mogi paying bribes to forge Kalu's attendance at Nigerian NT games to help him get a work permit. I think question marks have to be asked about the Lukebakio deal more generally though. He was transferred from Anderlecht to Charleroi for a small amount and then sold on to Watford immediately for over double the amount. That would be a bit fishy even if Mogi wasn't his agent and Charleroi was owned by his brother. Now it appears there was also some form of 55k kick back paid to Mogi's brother for the deal as well.
So we're the Prince Andrew in this? Good luck trying to strip our titles from us as we haven't got any. Never been to a pizza restaurant either despite Ranieri's clean sheet incentive
If he was on loan with an option to buy and then we became interested, what’s the issue with them triggering their option so that they and not the parent club get the profit. Clubs in Italy do this very regularly. The prosecutor has probed this deal and not found the underlying circumstances (trigger the option to buy to immediately resell) problematic or flagged Watford or any Watford employees as wrongdoers (unlike many of the other counter parties to Mogi’s deals). Mogi is dodgy certainly but I don’t think we need to get worked up about that aspect of the Lukebakio deal.
He looks mean as fark. Amongst the plethora of problems with our current centre halves is they are all soft as ****.
