The clubs of Saint-Etienne and Angers were searched on Tuesday and three players’ agents placed in police custody in an investigation for aggravated money laundering and illegal exercise of the profession of agent, according to information from the Parisian confirmed by AFP.
Of the three sports agents in police custody, only one has the license allowing him to practice this profession, said a source close to the investigation. The two who do not have this license are also already known to justice, added this source. The searches in the two clubs took place within the framework of an open investigation of the heads of illegal exercise of the profession of sports agent and aggravated money laundering, entrusted to the central service of races and games (SCCJ), specified from his side to AFP the parquet floor of Bobigny.
That at the headquarters of AS Saint-Etienne, which will play in Ligue 2 next season, took place at L’Étrat (Loire) in the presence of the chairman of the ASSE management board, Roland Romeyer, as a witness. added a source close to the file. The management of AS Saint-Etienne assured AFP on Tuesday evening that the investigators had “mainly come there to look for documents relating to the transfer of players” and that “other representatives of the management” had been heard in as witnesses.
The Saint-Etienne club explains that “among the players’ agents targeted by this investigation, ASSE was linked to one of them for a player transfer made two years ago”, specifying that it is the one with a agent license, “recognized by UEFA and Fifa”, added the club. Relegated at the end of the season, ASSE will play in Ligue 2 in 2022-2023. Fourteenth in the last championship, Angers will however be in Ligue 1.
