Lagom Sports Compliance launches as football's regulatory environment reaches an inflection point
A new specialist AML and financial-crime advisory firm enters the market as three simultaneous regulatory frameworks -- the Football Governance Act 2025 and the Independent Football Regulator, UEFA's 2025 Club Licensing and Financial Sustainability Regulations, and the incoming EU Anti-Money Laundering Regulation 2024/1624 -- converge to reshape the compliance obligations of every professional football club and agent in England and Europe.
Lagom Sports Compliance, a specialist anti-money laundering and financial-crime advisory firm built exclusively for professional football, today announces its formal launch. The firm is co-founded by Isabel Lemes and Jonathan Greenstein, both with extensive backgrounds in financial services regulatory compliance. The firm's name is deliberate: lagom is Swedish for 'not too much, not too little, just right' -- a direct expression of the proportionality principle embedded in EU Regulation 2024/1624, and of the firm's core philosophy that football compliance should be right-sized, not bank-transplanted.
Professional football is entering the most demanding compliance environment in its history. Three regulatory frameworks are converging simultaneously, each targeting the same underlying question: are the people and money flowing through football who and what they claim to be? Clubs and agents that understand what each framework requires -- and build integrated compliance responses rather than siloed reactions to each -- will be materially better positioned than those that do not.
"Football clubs and agents are facing a compliance environment unlike anything the sport has seen before. The EU AML Regulation coming in 2029 is serious. The IFR's source-of-wealth test, live since May, is serious. UEFA's ownership integrity requirements are being enforced with competition consequences, as Crystal Palace found out last summer. But our job is not to say no to any of this. Our job is to help clubs and agents get to a compliant yes -- with their commercial interests protected, their existing relationships preserved wherever possible, and controls that actually work for football rather than being imported wholesale from a retail bank." -- Isabel Lemes, Co-founder and Director, Lagom Sports Compliance
Three frameworks. One window. The case for acting now.
Each of the three regulatory frameworks shaping professional football in 2026 has moved from consultation to enforcement. The window for orderly preparation is open. It will not remain so indefinitely.
The three regulatory frameworks reshaping professional football
"We built Lagom because we kept seeing the same problem: clubs and agents being told what they could not do, without anyone helping them work out how they actually could. The compliance framework around football is closing fast -- and from multiple directions simultaneously. But compliance done properly does not have to be the end of a commercial conversation. It is the thing that makes the commercial conversation sustainable -- with your bank, your regulator, your sponsor, and your board. That is the Lagom proposition." -- Jonathan Greenstein, Co-founder and Director, Lagom Sports Compliance
The Lagom proposition: right-sized compliance, commercials front of mind
Lagom Sports Compliance is structured around three headline service offerings, designed to create a natural progression from initial assessment to full ongoing compliance support. The firm has also partnered with leading sanctions, PEP and adverse media screening technology providers to give football clients access to best-in-class screening capability at pricing appropriate to the sport rather than the banking sector.
The firm's model is technology-enabled but advisory-led: technology handles systematic screening at scale; the Lagom advisory layer handles the beneficial ownership analysis, source-of-wealth assessment and contextual risk judgement that technology cannot produce. Clubs and agents can assess their current compliance position immediately using the free compliance checker at www.lagomsportscompliance.com/am-i-compliant.
About Lagom Sports Compliance
Lagom Sports Compliance is a specialist AML and financial-crime advisory firm built for professional football. It is a trading style of Lagom Consultants Limited, a limited liability company incorporated in England and Wales (registered number 15527181, VAT number 465 3599 52). The firm advises football clubs, agents, leagues, confederations, investors and their legal and financial advisers on AML compliance, financial-crime risk, transfer-window controls and regulatory readiness across EU Regulation 2024/1624, the Football Governance Act 2025, the IFR and the UEFA Club Licensing and Financial Sustainability Regulations 2025.
Services range from the Readiness Assessment through full AML Framework Development support to a fully outsourced AML function (Outsourcing and Resourcing support). Free compliance checker: www.lagomsportscompliance.com/am-i-compliant.
About the co-founders
Isabel Lemes (Co-founder and Director) brings more than a decade of experience in financial services, fintech and crypto, leading compliance and anti-financial crime functions. Within Lagom Sports Compliance, Isabel leads all client advice and support. She is multilingual in Spanish, English and French. LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/mariaisabellemes | Email: il@lagomsportscompliance.com
Jonathan Greenstein (Co-founder and Director) has 15 years of financial services regulatory compliance experience. Jonathan leads Lagom Sports Compliance's business development, operations, finance and marketing, and is also founder of Lagom Consulting. LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/greensteinjonathan | Email: jg@lagomsportscompliance.com
Press and media contact
Jonathan Greenstein jg@lagomsportscompliance.com
Isabel Lemes il@lagomsportscompliance.com
General info@lagomsportscompliance.com
Website www.lagomsportscompliance.com
LinkedIn linkedin.com/company/lagom-sports-compliance
Notes to editors
1. EU Regulation 2024/1624 (AMLR) was adopted by the Council of the European Union on 30 May 2024. Football-specific obligations apply from 10 July 2029.
2. The Football Governance Act 2025 received Royal Assent on 21 July 2025. The IFR's ownership and officer suitability regime became fully operational on 5 May 2026.
3. UEFA Club Licensing and Financial Sustainability Regulations, Edition 2025 were approved by the UEFA Executive Committee in September 2025 and are in force for the 2025/26 licence season.
4. The CFCB ruling on Crystal Palace FC and OL Groupe was issued on 11 July 2025. The Court of Arbitration for Sport dismissed the appeal on 11 August 2025.
5. Lagom Consultants Limited is incorporated in England and Wales, registered number 15527181. VAT number 465 3599 52.