Thus, VG had access to documents that shock the world's football elite

Friday night, the German newspaper Der Spiegel and a number of media, including VG, published the first articles on what constitutes the most complete leak of documents in the world of sport.

VG is part of the European Investigative Collaboration (EIC), a central element of cooperation in the field of football leaking. The project is a collaboration between the sport and agenda department of VG.

"One of the reasons we share this is that journalist Anders Kokkin Christiansen has been able to bring together international contacts at conferences and other focal points. and he's been familiar with people, he's helped us to participate, as well as 14 news outlets from all over Europe, "said Leif Welhaven, commentator of the VG in DN.

DN has been in contact with Christiansen, referring to Welhaven for comments.

Reject piracy

Football Leaks, as it is called, consists of 70 million documents delivered to Der Spiegel from an anonymous source, a Portuguese man with the nickname "John". In an interview with Der Spiegel, "John" stated that the documents did not correspond to piracy but that they had been delivered to him from a network of sources spread throughout Europe. .

– In this network, there is only Der Spiegel who knows his identity. We were open to the fact that we do not do it and we clearly indicated where the leaks were coming from. Obviously, we are doing independent evaluations of what we think are important enough to be published, "said Welhaven.

VG began to slip with two revelations: the first, which explains how the owners of the French PSG and Manchester City have tried to circumvent the financial rules of football, the Financial Fair Play, to reap billions in clubs, including with the the help of FIFA's current president, Gianni Infantino. The second case concerns the projects of the biggest football clubs in Europe to get out of the Champions League and form the "Super League".

On Saturday morning, a Norwegian couple, Kjetil Siem, who advises FIFA President Gianni Infantino, reveals in an internal memo that it was an internal attack on his colleagues.

"I think that what we have published has obvious societal significance, and in this very big job it is not everything, but we will publish each case publicly," Welhaven said.

Other leaks

This is the second time that Der Spiegel publishes leaked documents of Football Leaks. The first round, published in 2016, has contributed to superstar Cristiano Ronaldo being convicted of tax evasion.

"We are still at the beginning of the work with that, so we have to be careful to say what the consequences will be." But we can already conclude that leaks show that in a world where many sports journalism is easy and focused on specific periods, areas are being reported. Both sides of football need increased journalistic awareness so that this culture can not develop, Welhaven said.

Waiting for doping

According to him, football is closely linked to geopolitics, indicating that the PSG belongs to one of the largest businessmen of Qatar, Nasser al-Khelaifi, while Manchester City belongs to the Deputy Prime Minister Mansour bin Zayed al Nahyan in the United Arab Emirates.

– There are hidden connections, chords in the back shop and operations in the gray areas. But it is also interesting to see how important football has become geopolitical. The owner of PSG Qatar seems to use the club as a showcase for positive information. At the same time, we know that Qatar has received international criticism for the way it is preparing for the World Cup, "Welhaven said.

In a commentary, Der Spiegel announces more information in the coming weeks. Among other things, leaks reveal that a player who has won the Champions League has repeatedly been tested positive for doping.

"I can not say anything about what will happen, but it will mark slots for a while," Welhaven said.(Conditions)Copyright Dagens Næringsliv AS and / or our suppliers. We would like you to share our business using a link directly to our pages. The copy or any other form of use of all or part of the content may only be done by written authorization or as permitted by law. For other terms please see here.