‘For a long time, I’ve had the impression Mogi was the director of football at Watford because he was so at home in that office,” said the agent and former Belgium international Daniel Kimoni in an interview with the Belgian football magazine Sport/Foot in 2019.
“[The owner Gino] Pozzo just came and went throughout the day, leaving Mogi to do what he wanted.”
The Mogi in question is the French-Iranian agent Arnaud Mogi Bayat. He is awaiting trial in Belgium over charges that include money laundering and fraud, having been arrested in 2018 as part of the Operation Clean Hands investigation that led to 57 administrators, referees and coaches being summoned to appear in court. Bayat was released on conditional bail and has denied all the charges, which also include conspiracy and the suspected forging of documents in several transfers.
His lawyer, Tom Bauwens, said in October that Bayat remained “professionally active in Belgium and abroad” and “will one day explain himself on the few prejudices that he remains charged with”. More than 40 defendants are due to face trial this year.
Since Bayat’s arrest Watford are the only English club to have registered a transfer with the Football Association that lists him as an agent. He was the registered intermediary on nine transactions last season when they were relegated from the Premier League, including deals involving Emmanuel Dennis, Moussa Sissoko and Hassane Kamara, who moved to Udinese – owned by Gino Pozzo’s father, Giampaolo – in August for £16m before being immediately loaned back for the season. That transfer is reportedly being examined by the EFL to ensure the fee was not inflated.
Watford’s technical director, Ben Manga, said in a statement that such an examination was “normal” and that “Kamara was independently valued in Italy as it’s a related party transaction, so it’s already been assessed”.
Bayat is listed by the FA as the registered intermediary on two Watford transfers in the period 1 February 2019 to 31 January 2020 and three more from 1 February 2022 to 31 January 2023.
A Guardian investigation has indicated that Bayat appears to have deeper links to Watford than his work on transfers. In June 2019 – a month after he was released on conditional bail in Belgium – a then director of the club’s holding company, Hornets Investment Ltd, helped Bayat to establish his business in the UK. Documents show Lorenzo Gallucci – a longtime independent financial and investment adviser to Pozzo, and Bayat’s accountant – helped to formulate MB Foot UK Ltd with Bayat’s wife through his company Cordis Holdings Ltd.
When Cordis passed on its controlling interest in MB Foot in July 2019, it was to Galzar Consulting Ltd, where Gallucci is a controlling partner. Galzar held the majority of its stake until September 2019 and retained 4% of shares until May 2021, according to the confirmation statement lodged at Companies House last September. Since September 2019, Bayat has had majority control of MB Foot.
Gallucci remained a director of Hornets Investments until September 2020. Cordis Holdings, Galzar Consulting and MB Foot have their registered office at the same address in London, which all three adopted within a four-day period in June 2021.
Bayat told the Guardian that “MB Foot has no connection” with Galzar or Cordis. “Galzar is a company which belongs to Mr Gallucci, who helped me to set up my company in UK and one of his companies acts as my accountant – that is the only connection between myself and Mr Gallucci.
“A company controlled by Mr Gallucci was used to incorporate MB Foot UK, as dormant for a few months, then transferred to me with all shares and my appointment as director and controlling person on 19 September 2019.”
Companies House filings, however, appear to show that Galzar retained 4% of MB Foot’s shares for another 18 months. Bayat’s wife retained 45% of the shares until May 2021.
Gallucci did not respond to a request for comment.
A Watford spokesperson said: “It is Watford FC’s understanding that Mr Gallucci is not a person of significant control at MB Foot and has not been since 2019. MB Foot is paid strictly as an intermediary in transfers and through the appropriate FA channels.”
Bayat is believed to have been involved in Watford’s signing last summer of the striker Vakoun Bayo from the Belgian side RSC Charleroi, where his brother Mehdi Bayat is the sporting director. Mehdi is also due to stand trial in Belgium after it was alleged he received kickbacks from transfers, including Watford’s signing of Dodi Lukebakio from Charleroi in 2018 when it is alleged he received a €20,000 Philippe Patek watch. Mehdi Bayat has denied the allegations.
A report in L’Équipe last week revealed that the public prosecutor of Rennes had launched a judicial investigation into Bayat on suspicion of “illegal exercise of the profession of players’ agent, money laundering and gang formation” in his dealings with the French club Nantes. Bauwens told L’Équipe: “We are aware of this case but, to date, Mogi Bayat has not been heard or contacted in the context of this case. As far as the authorities believe that we must answer questions, it is up to them to inform us and for the moment this is not the case.”
Bayat has been contacted by the Guardian for comment.
This season’s list of transactions published by the FA show that Bayat was involved in the transfers of Sissoko and Dennis to Nantes and Nottingham Forest respectively, the contract renewal of Imran Louza and Watford’s signing of Wesley Hoedt from Anderlecht. Asked about his role at Watford, Mogi Bayat said: “MB Foot and I are acting as simple football intermediaries with Watford FC and MB Foot has many other clients throughout Europe.”
A Watford spokesperson said: “Mr Bayat remains sanctioned to operate under Fifa, Uefa and FA regulations. As with all intermediaries employed by the club, their mandate is to derive maximum profitability from transfers out of the club and value from contract renegotiations.”
Bayat, whose arrest in Belgium relates in part to an investigation into Aleksandr Mitrovic’s transfer from Anderlecht to Newcastle in 2015, is understood to have moved to London in December 2020 after his villa in Belgium was raided by police investigating alleged forgery at Nantes, another club with whom he has strong links. He is still frequently in the directors’ box at Vicarage Road.
