follow the money: investigating nigerian football agents
TRANSCRIPT
FOLLOW THE MONEY
Who extracts the value of Nigerian football players?
Paul Bradshaw, Online Journalism Blog
Yemisi Akinbobola, IQ4News
Ogechi Ekeanyawu, TheCable, Nigeria
Step 1: Mapping the territory
Picture of a fragmented market200 agents linked to 450 players
50 players represented by family or no agent
Recurring names:
● Team One Investment, 11 Africa Stars Football Management, Just Football, Global Soccer Management
● Emefie Aneke Atta, Dimitri Celuk, Lergen Zinchenko
FIFA Datasets
Agents are now (self-certified) intermediaries
Data Dictionary● Solidarity contribution● Training compensation● Club intermediary commission
Step 2: Drilling down and working collaboratively
Challenges:
Agents with no obvious company
Companies in countries with no public register
Dissolved or dormant companies
Multiple companies
SourcesOpenCorporates
Investigative Dashboard
Compass by Arachnys
Companies House
Passport
Marketline Advantage
Corporate Affairs Commission (Nigeria)
The human story
Lesson learnt: EFCC and NFF officials are not media friendly!
Step 3: Hackday
Participants:
● Students (MA Online Journalism, BCU)● Hacks/Hackers Birmingham● BBC data team● OpenCorporates● Tax Justice Network● Web developers● Network analysts
The agenda
● Shared Google spreadsheet● Hera Hussain introduced OpenCorporates● Group activities using range of sources● Audio of Oge’s interview (human context)● Mapping of data
The Result: Company details of at least 40 agents!!!
The outcome
● Main feature - immersive experience ● Human story - the Nigerian experience● How we did it - our experience
Thanks to
●● Premium Times Nigeria● Birmingham City University● Hacks/Hackers Birmingham● BBC Data Unit● OpenCorporates (Hera Hussain)● Tax Justice Network (George Turner)● David Blood● Caroline Beavon
