Abdilgafar Fali Ramadani, the German-born Macedonia manager who oversaw Luka Jovic’s transfer from Eintracht Frankfurt to Real Madrid for 60 million euros in 2019 has been charged with money laundering and offences against the public purse in Spain. Ramadani who is a director and co-founder at Lian Sports, an agency whose activities are concentrated in the Balkan countries, acquiring highly skilled talents. Ahead of Jovic’s transfer to Real Madrid, a media report from AS dubbed Lian Sports as an agency that remains out of the spotlight and always in shadow. The Spanish investigators have now decided to view the documentation on various signings at 11 different Spanish clubs, mostly players from Serbia and other Yugoslav countries. Besides Jovic, Lian Sport reportedly represents 17 other Serbian players, seven from Bosnia, 11 from Croatia, two from Montenegro, one Macedonian and one from Kosovo.
A Spanish law enforcement press release about the investigation said the probe was “focused on the transfers of players carried out by a well-known representation agency in which a Cypriot club was used to make fictional signings”. After monitoring the origin of the money at an international level, the same press release said that the case became known through the documents disclosed by various social media and commonly referred to as Football Leaks. The investigation was initiated by the Special Prosecutor’s Office against Corruption and Organized Crime and conducted by the Central Operating Unit of the Civil Guard and the Spanish tax agency. Europol was also involved. “Given the scope of the operation, the collaboration of Europol was requested, which has supported analytical and operational research, as well as facilitating international cooperation among all the institutions involved,” the press release explained.
