Interview with Football Leaks: 'Football Is a Paradise for Corruption'

2016/2/10 22:41:06

A website named Football Leaks is making waves throughout the entire world of professional football. This was just one small part of what Der Spiegel determined:

 

SPIEGEL ONLINE: How is this pressure manifested?

 

Football Leaks: Our homepage has already been attacked, a sporting rights agency sent abusive DMCA takedowns and pressured the host providers. Our Russian provider closed our cloud and then showed us documents from this company, which had massively pressured them to do it. We're now victims of censorship.

 

Photo: Munich’s Allianz Arena

 


Interview Conducted by Rafael Buschmann and Michael Wulzinger for Der Spiegel:

 

For months now, the whistleblower platform Football Leaks has been posting player contracts and other official documents from the world of international soccer on its website. In an interview with SPIEGEL ONLINE, "John" explains their motivations.

 

The man whose identity is a mystery to the entire football industry calls himself "John." He's the spokesperson for the whistleblower platform Football Leaks, which has been posting professional soccer contracts on the web for months now. The platform most recently made global headlines by publishing details of the transfer agreement for Real Madrid star Gareth Bale, exposing the fact the Welsh national team member is now the world's most expensive footballer. In an email interview with SPIEGEL, John explains the whistleblowers' aims and motivations, the number of documents in their possession that are still under review and the pressure exerted on them by player agents and investigative authorities.

 

 

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Where is Football Leaks operated?

Football Leaks: We live in Portugal. We are all Portuguese citizens.

 

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Are you employed by anyone?

 

Football Leaks: We are totally independent and none of us is paid for working here. The fact that we have stirred football up so much with the publication of the documents has made us realize that we have turned a few powerful enemies against us. That's why we are unable to say anything further about our identities. We have to protect ourselves.

 

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Why did you create Football Leaks?

 

Football Leaks: We had been thinking about this project for a long time. At some point, we began collecting documents from the football business and waited for the right moment to publish them. Last summer it was time. There were numerous dodgy player transfers on the Portuguese transfer market and we wanted to untangle the lies and inconsistencies. The more documents we obtained and analyzed, the clearer it became to us that this non-transparent football industry needs help.

 

SPIEGEL ONLINE: How many contracts and documents do you possess?

 

Football Leaks: We have more than 500 gigabytes of documents and are constantly receiving new ones.

 

For complete text of the article, link below:

http://www.spiegel.de/international/e ... n-football-a-1076192.html

 

Photo courtesy article source

 

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