New Regulation from the Financial Information Unit Regarding Professional Football

On November 2, 2012, the Financial Information Unit (Unidad de Información Financiera or “UIF”) issued Resolution No. 196/2012 (“Resolution 196”) that amends Resolution No. 70/2011 (the “Resolution 70”) and 32/2012 (“Resolution 32”), both from the UIF.

Resolution 70 (which, as far as professional football is concerned, has been amended by Resolution No. 93/2012 of the UIF) rules everything related to the periodic reports (reportes sistemáticos) that the obliged persons under the anti-money laundering regulations must file with the UIF while Resolution 32 sets forth the obligations that the Argentine Football Association (Asociación del Fútbol Argentino or “AFA”) and the clubs whose teams participate in the First Division and Second Division of the football tournaments that the AFA organizes (the “Participating Clubs”) are subject to.

As to the periodic reports (reportes sistemáticos), Resolution 196 states that, as from July 1, 2012, the Participating Clubs must report to the UIF, up to the 15th day of each month, the following transactions: (a) transfers or assignments of federative rights; (b) transfers or assignments of economic rights derived from federative rights; and (c) loans received (whether burdensome or not) in amounts higher than AR$100,000, or its equivalent in other currencies, in one or in several acts within the preceding 30 days. Before this amendment the AFA was also obliged to make such reports.

Resolution 196 expands the reporting requirements of the AFA at three levels. The first has to do with the obligation to make periodic reports (reportes sistemáticos) to the UIF regarding: (a) the transfer or assignment of federative rights, (b) ownership of all economic rights, derived from the federative ones, of all of the professional football players of the Participating Clubs (for which the AFA should ask such relevant information), (c) funds borrowed (burdensome or not) by the amounts and other characteristics mentioned in (c) of the previous paragraph. Such reports are monthly and should cover the following periods: (i) September 1 of one year to the last day of February of the following year, inclusive, and (ii) from 1 March to 31 August, inclusive. The report must be made by the 15th day of the month following the end of each semester.

The second level of reporting has to do with the status of the Participating Clubs. Within 30 days of their ups and downs AFA must report to the UIF which Participating Clubs have reached the Second Category and which have gone to a lower one.

Finally, the third level of report is only applicable to the current year: before December 31, 2012 the AFA must report to the UIF the ownership of all economic rights, derived from the federative ones, of all professional football players of the Participating Clubs, and must request such relevant information from same.

As for the amendments to Resolution 32, they refer to the client file preparation and reporting of suspicious transactions.

Regarding the former, Resolution 196 provides that, for purposes of the formation of such files and to enable the AFA to determine the customer profile, the Participating Clubs must send to it the information detailed in Articles 12 to 16 of Resolution 32. It also states that such is the only action that the AFA and the Participating Clubs can share for purposes of fulfilling the obligations that each has in their capacity as obliged persons under Resolution 32.

Finally, regarding the reporting of suspicious transactions, Resolution 196 includes the pathe to be especially evaluated by the AFA to determine whether a transaction should be reported to the UIF as suspicious in those cases where the Participating Clubs refuse to provide the information and/or documents necessary to conform to the customer file and determine their profile.