Fake transfer nearly brings English player to Netherlands; Identity fraud reports filed

FC Groningen has reported identity fraud after scammers impersonated the club’s technical director Mo Allach in a fake transfer operation that nearly brought an English player to the Netherlands under false pretenses. The club said it believes a sophisticated group is behind the scheme, NOS reports.

Both FC Groningen and Allach have filed police reports over the misuse of their identities. The club has also informed other Eredivisie teams. The KNVB and the Public Prosecution Service have been notified.

The scammers reportedly contacted agents by phone and email while pretending to represent FC Groningen and claiming the club was interested in players they represented. They used forged documents featuring the club’s logo, colors, and address details, along with fake email addresses.

Once a transfer appeared close to completion, the scammers sent payment requests, often to agents, claiming the money was needed for medical examinations, travel costs, or flights.

“I have received at least 10 phone calls from agents in recent weeks who warned us about this,” FC Groningen chief scout Arno de Jong said. “This shows that it has happened on a large scale in recent weeks.”

De Jong said one agent contacted him excitedly about a proposal and financial terms he believed had come from FC Groningen. “He wanted to make a follow-up appointment, but the proposal turned out to have come from the scammers,” he said.

Allach said the fake offers contained several mistakes that exposed the fraud.

“They contact an agent and eventually a contract proposal follows,” Allach said. “There are all kinds of mistakes in it. For example, the amounts are listed as net figures, while in football we always work with gross amounts.”

The scammers also used Allach’s identity on WhatsApp, including his profile photo, but from different phone numbers and with incorrect names. In one case, an agent became suspicious after speaking with someone pretending to be Allach because the person’s English was poor.

The fraud also involved a fake contract proposal for Danish player Julius Madsen of AC Horsens, according to a document obtained by RTV Noord. The fake agreement claimed Madsen could earn 12,000 euros net per month at FC Groningen, receive a car and sign a four-year contract with an option for an additional season. The document was signed under the name “Mo Allach - Sporting Director.”

The fake paperwork also included the name of PEC Zwolle’s main sponsor beneath the letter to the player, suggesting other clubs may have been targeted by the same group.

“Last season, the name of Jordens Peters, director of Roda JC, was misused in the same way,” FC Groningen general director Frank van Mosselveld said. “The same thing happened to Gerry Hamstra of PEC Zwolle.”

Van Mosselveld said the scammers’ approach was convincing enough that mistakes could go unnoticed.

“If an office is working on 20 deals at the same time, something like this can slip through,” he said. “They operate quite cleverly.”

The scammers told agents that Dutch registration rules had changed and claimed FC Groningen could not yet register a player with the KNVB because the player was still under contract elsewhere. They said payments would therefore first have to go through the agent’s office.

The scheme went as far as bringing a player to Schiphol Airport.

“There was actually an English player waiting at Schiphol for transportation to Groningen,” De Jong said. “He really thought he was coming to play for us. But when nobody from our club showed up to pick him up, they started to suspect something was wrong. There is a very good chance his agent fell for it and transferred money. That player had even turned down other clubs that were genuinely interested. It is really sad.”

FC Groningen general director Van Mosselveld said he believes the fraud was carried out by a scam group rather than individuals linked directly to football.

“I think it is simply a scam group, so I fear we will never find out who is behind this,” he said. “The more people know about this, the smaller the chance that people will fall for it.”