Ownership of and investment in football clubs should be transparent, to ensure good governance in sports, MEP Francis Zammit Dimech told the Pana Committee.

He insisted that the details must be known on the ultimate beneficial owners and the level of investment and donations, especially when these exceeded significant amounts.

Dr Zammit Dimech was speaking during a European Parliament committee meeting with Uefa and Fifa.

The details must be known on the ultimate beneficial owners

The committee is looking into money laundering, tax avoidance and tax evasion and was set up to investigate the Panama Papers scandal that also involved Malta.

The first part of the meeting focused on leaks in football and saw the involvement of the European Investigative Collaborations, which embraces investigative journalists from Europe and has published the findings of financial wrongdoing in the world of soccer and Fifa, Uefa and European Football Agents Association representatives.

There was agreement among speakers that a better regulatory framework to protect football as a sport, rather than as a commercial venture, was required.

During the meeting, Uefa and Fifa representatives faced harsh criticism and some MEPs let it be known that the answers they were given were “incomplete”.

Apart from sitting on the Pana committee, Dr Zammit Dimech is also member of the Culture and Education Committee, which is also responsible for sports, the media and youth.