AML & Financial Integrity
Advisory for Professional Sport
Practical, proportionate AML and integrity solutions tailored to football clubs, agents, and sports organizations operating under increasing regulatory scrutiny.
Professional football has changed.
Regulation has caught up.
Professional football now sits firmly within the focus of regulators, financial institutions, and law-enforcement authorities. Large cross-border transactions, evolving ownership structures, agent involvement, and sponsorship relationships have made clubs vulnerable to AML and financial integrity scrutiny.
Most clubs are not under-managed — they are simply not designed like financial institutions. What regulators expect is not banking-level bureaucracy, but clear risk awareness, proportionate controls, and defensible governance.
Built for sport. Defensible to regulators.
We advise sporting organizations only
We do not apply bank-style AML models to football
Our frameworks reflect how clubs actually operate
We work with boards, legal teams & senior management
We focus on clarity, proportionality, and integrity
The people behind the advisory.
Athena P. Constantinou
Managing Director | Sports, Entertainment & Financial Integrity Advisory
Athena P. Constantinou is the Managing Director and heads the firm's Sports & Entertainment division. She holds a bachelor's degree in Business Administration, with specialization in Accounting and Business Law, and an MBA in Computer Information Systems from the Bernard M. Baruch School of Business of the City University of New York. She is a Certified Public Accountant licensed in the State of New York, an International Member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, a Chartered Global Management Accountant, a Certified Financial Education Instructor, a member of ACAMS and a Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist. She is also an active member of the Global Council of the Sports Integrity Global Alliance and a member of the SIGA Women Council.
Athena has more than 35 years of international professional experience in tax, business consulting, sports and entertainment advisory. She has advised high-net-worth individuals, athletes, entertainers and entities on international tax planning, business structuring, image rights, valuation, commercialization and management of sports and entertainment-related assets.
She is the founder and Global CEO of the Sports Financial Literacy Academy, which designs and delivers financial literacy and empowerment programmes for athletes globally. Through her role in APC Compliance Ltd, Athena also advises sports organizations and stakeholders on Anti-Money Laundering and sports integrity matters.
Lazaros Ioannou
Director | AML, Sanctions & Sports Integrity Advisory
Lazaros Ioannou is a Director specializing in Anti-Money Laundering, sanctions compliance, regulatory advisory and sports integrity. He holds a bachelor's degree in Business Administration, with specialization in Management and Marketing, from the University of Cyprus, and a Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of Nicosia. He is a Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist and Certified Global Sanctions Specialist by ACAMS, and also holds the CySEC Advanced Certificate.
Lazaros has extensive experience advising clients internationally on AML, regulatory compliance, sanctions, governance and sport integrity matters. His work focuses on designing practical and proportionate compliance frameworks that align legal and regulatory obligations with the operational realities of each organization. He is also an active member of the Sports Integrity Global Alliance and co-author of the book Money Laundering: Framework, International Standards and Application, published by Nomiki Vivliothiki in Greece.
Through Sport Integrity & AML Advisory, Lazaros supports sports organizations, clubs, agents and stakeholders in understanding and managing financial crime, regulatory and integrity risks in a way that is practical, defensible and tailored to the sports environment.
Transfer activity, agent payments, and cross-border flows demand deliberate oversight.
Where we engage.
AML Readiness & Risk Assessment
Identify your real exposure and obligations — clearly and proportionately.
AML Framework Design & Implementation
Defensible AML systems designed to work in football environments.
Transfer Window & Integrity Oversight
Targeted advisory support during peak risk periods.
Ownership & Investment Integrity Due Diligence
Protection for clubs, boards, and investors in transactions.
For those who sit closest to the risk.
- ·Professional football clubs
- ·Football agents and intermediaries
- ·Club holding companies and investors
- ·Sports organizations exposed to betting or cross-border risk
If asked today, could your club demonstrate that it understands and manages its financial integrity risks?