Enzo Raiola: ‘In Italian Football, Agents Pay Bribes to Sporting Directors’
Words as heavy as boulders. Enzo Raiola, cousin of the late Mino Raiola — the powerful agent who passed away in 2022 and represented stars of the calibre of Ibrahimović, Pogba and Haaland — has made explosive statements during a show hosted by Fabrizio Corona on YouTube, shaking the foundations of Italian football to its core.
Raiola’s Self-Accusation: The Bribe System
Raiola opened with words of disarming clarity: “I wanted to turn myself in.” According to the agent, in recent years Italian football has seen the consolidation of a perverse system based on corruption between agents and sporting directors. The mechanism, as described by Raiola, works as follows: the player who advances in his career is not necessarily the most talented, but the one whose agent has paid off the sporting director of the interested club. An illegal practice that, according to his words, has become the norm in many Italian football clubs.
Foreign Funds, Local Managers and Lack of Oversight
Raiola also framed the problem in a broader context: the entry of foreign investment funds into Italian football. With owners based abroad — citing as an example the case of Gerry Cardinale, owner of AC Milan, based in America — the day-to-day management of clubs is entrusted to local managers, often without direct and rigorous supervision from the owners. This geographical and cultural distance creates, according to Raiola, ideal conditions for opacity and improper practices.
Millions Paid to Families to Secure Young Talent
The revelations do not stop at bribes between agents and sporting directors. Raiola also describes a parallel system through which agents secure emerging players: payments to footballers’ families, made through image rights companies, luxury cars, jewellery and other benefits. Figures that, according to the agent, reach astronomical sums — with an estimated 400-500 million euros spent collectively by agents to secure the representation rights of the best young talents.
Declarations That Could Trigger an Investigation
Raiola’s words are bound to make waves. Statements of this kind, made publicly and in such explicit terms, can hardly be ignored by the competent authorities — the FIGC Federal Prosecutor’s Office and the ordinary judiciary first and foremost. It is reasonable to expect that these revelations could set off checks and, eventually, formal investigations.
Italian football, already struggling in terms of sporting results and structural reform, now finds itself confronting the spectre of systemic corruption. A scourge that, if confirmed, would require decisive and radical action to restore credibility and transparency to the entire system. Because football, above all else, must be a clean sport — and real fans deserve a system that respects their passion.
