Following the money through UK finance.
English football's ownership tests are not sanctions screening by another name. Offshore holding companies, related-party sponsorship and transfer payments through intermediaries can leave clubs exposed long after a takeover is approved.
A year after mandatory identity verification became a condition of UK company formation and directorship, the register is cleaner at the edges but not necessarily harder to abuse. Trace examines the filings, removals and enforcement notices to separate the reform's real gains from its remaining blind spots.
HMRC-supervised professional enablers keep surfacing in money-laundering cases because supervision is thin, penalties are cheap and the commercial incentive to ask fewer questions is strong. Trace sets out five red flags compliance teams should treat as live risks in their own counterparties.