Kia Joorabchian’s involvement with MLS demands further scrutiny

Last Wednesday, the LA Galaxy announced the signing of defensive midfielder Nigel De Jong who started the 2010 FIFA World Cup Final for the Netherlands and won the 2012 Premier League title with Manchester City. De Jong is yet another prestige signing for MLS’ signature club but raises questions about how he got to MLS and why he is signing.

In the past, De Jong has been advised by British educated businessman Kia Joorabchian, who is one of the most controversial figures in world soccer.  This came quickly after Matt Miazga, one of MLS’ brightest young stars surprisingly landed at Chelsea. All indications are that Joorabchian was involved with that move as well, as Miazga is represented by an agency that is backed by the businessman.  It is also important to note Joorabchian is NOT a registered agent but uses agents like Nelson to conduct business with the men in the sport he “advises.”

In December 2015 Goal.com’s Ives Galarcep reported:

Sources tell Goal USA that Joorabchian has already been behind the transferring of two other young defenders from MLS to Europe in Canadian national team defender Doneil Henry and U.S. Under-23 defender Shane O’Neill.

These deals were fronted by agent Ryan Nelson who formerly played for Joorabchian’s close associate Mark Hughes at Blackburn and QPR. The ties with Hughes have often given Joorabchian an “anchor club” to place players.

Joorabchian, who is seen in some circles as a “fixer,” is a figure well known to many who follow the European and South American soccer landscape. But he is a far lesser known person in the world of MLS fandom even though he reportedly holds a Canadian passport. He represents players and has in the past directly controlled the economic rights and movement of several prominent footballers. However he is not an agent.

Third-party ownership has been one of the overriding issues in club soccer over the past decade. Joorabchian made a partnership with Brazilian giants Corinthians in 2004 that led to the move of Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano first to the club and then away to West Ham United. The company Joorabchian worked with at the time, Media Sports Investments (MSI), made an agreement to cover debts Corinthians incurred so-long as the company kept 51% of the profits.

This was the first major controversy involving Joorabchian that caught the notice of the English press. The move of Tevez and Mascherano away from Corinthians to West Ham United in 2006 using MSI as a company with which to register the players to maintain ownership of them was something completely unknown in the world of English soccer. Things became even more complicated that year when Joorabchian left MSI but retained ownership rights to Tevez and Mascherano. At the time, Joorabchian was looking at a potential investment in West Ham United.

Meanwhile, Corinthians was sinking under the weight of the the deals with Joorabchian and MSI. And in 2007, he was accused of using the club to launder money. Cleared of these allegations in 2014, the club he left behind Corinthians nonetheless suffered a shocking relegation in 2007 before returning to prominence and winning Copa Libertadores in 2012.

A warrant for Joorabchian’s arrest was issued in 2007 and while he was cleared of all charges, many based in Brazil still hesitate to do business with him. However, he was able to develop relationships with several Brazilian players who at the time were in Italy including Alexandre Pato and Julio Cesar among others. The timing of both Pato and Miazga’s arrival at Chelsea seem far from coincidental given this background.

Tevez was eventually moved to Manchester United, and Mascherano to Liverpool under the haze of third-party ownership and allegations by other clubs of foul play. At the time, Joorabchian told The Guardian newspaper:

“Believe me, if we had done anything wrong, we also would have been under the lawsuit, under scrutiny. But clearly since we have never been sued, never been accused of any wrongdoing, everyone has granted that we hadn’t done anything wrong. And, quite contrary, everyone knows that third-party ownership was permitted because Liverpool and Man United both managed to do it after [the West Ham deal].”

But the reality was that third-party ownership was only permitted because the English authorities had never been confronted with this sort of scenario before, and they worked diligently to close loopholes after Joorabchian gamed the system.  The Tevez and Mascherano fiasco led to serious repercussions for West Ham as they paid a hefty fine and barely avoided a points deduction, which would have relegated the club. Meanwhile Joorabchian was cultivating another English club, Manchester City, who were under the new ownership of former Thai President Thaksin Shinawatra.

In the next several years, Joorabchian made relationships with several people involved with Manchester City including players Shaun Wright-Phillips (now in MLS), Nigel De Jong and Nedum Onuoha while becoming very closely aligned with head coach Mark Hughes. It was during this period in 2009 when Carlos Tevez arrived at Manchester City, coming across town from local rival Manchester United where Joorabchian had parked the player for two seasons.

Manchester City in the 2008 to 2010 time period were desperate to ruffle feathers in English soccer and upstage Manchester United. However in time, the association with players and coaches linked to Joorabchian was troublesome and one by one they were run out of the club and now the Blues are very hesitant to do business with him. Because English authorities had banned third-party ownership, Tevez was registered directly to Manchester City, which gave the club the upper-hand every time Joorabchian and his client tried to force a move away from the club, which happened in almost every single transfer window after Hughes was sacked in December 2009. This is significant as we refocus on Major League Soccer because Manchester City’s owners who bought the team from Shinawatra now also own New York City FC.

Major League Soccer is in a position where they seem willing to take chances to get players to North America while shopping young Canadian and American talent abroad. Since Joorabchian doesn’t have the rap sheet in North America that he has developed in Europe and South America, the region seems a perfect landing spot for the “fixer.”

But this comes with serious risk for MLS and its global image. While many in the US soccer press and blogosphere are willing to give the league a pass on just about anything it does, the league’s association with Joorabchian however incidental will raise red flags with many foreign media. As MLS strives for credibility in the world’s game, being involved in several deals that might raise suspicion — such as why Shane O’Neill has hardly played a match for the club he was sold to by MLS while he is constantly loaned out to other teams — could be damaging for the league.

Kia Joorabchian has shown an uncanny ability to game the system and survive for over a decade in the business despite his professional reputation being damaged by almost constant negative press. Those survival skills led him to Major League Soccer and since MLS is accustomed to receiving a pass from much of the US-based press on matters of this nature, he may have found an environment in which he can operate safely and thrive.

Since the Joorabchian/MLS relationship appears to be growing stronger, the time has come for fans and media alike in North America to ask the tough questions about it. Failure to do so could lead to the types of problems Corinthians and others have faced.