Big data leak hits European football clubs

Photo by Chris Deahr/Flickr

Unfortunately, nothing is safe from data leaks these days. Professional football (or soccer) is its latest victim. German publication Der Spiegel released a first of possibly a steady stream of stories and details related to corruption happening in different European professional clubs as well as the players involved in the sport. A group called “Football Leaks” got their hands on 1.9 terabytes of data, which covers 18.6 million documents that include secret agreements between clubs and players.

The first story Der Spiegel broke is about how football stars Cristiano Ronaldo and Mesut Özil have been taking advantage of different tax laws to make a lot of money. It’s not news for the industry as Lionel Messi was recently convicted of tax fraud. But this just goes to show there are possibly more controversial stories coming out of the leak.

Source: Engadget