Alamy

30 June 2022 - 6:01 PM

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Alamy

Exclusive: The Manchester City sponsor who paid millions – but only managed to sell 145 pre-paid cards

  • Manchester City sponsor Wega sold just 145 branded pre-paid cards, despite signing up for £681,000 annual sponsorship. Wega’s parent company has been a partner of City since 2015.
  • Investor accuses City of not doing its due diligence and “only taking the money” and alleges investors signed up for other failed schemes off the back of Wega’s ties to Manchester City.
  • Why it matters: Manchester City’s finances have been under scrutiny for many years and this partnership seemingly raises fresh questions.
  • The perspective: The LaLiga chairman Javier Tebas last week publicly questioned value for money sponsorship deals involving City and Paris Saint Germain.

When Mokhliss Barriol first became involved with Manchester City partner Truxtun Capital in 2018, the then 44-year-old Frenchman was seeking to build on his burgeoning career in football business.

Barriol’s professional background is in aviation engineering, but after working in Qatar in the middle of the last decade he became an entrepreneur involved in emerging technologies and gaming.

He first came into contact with Truxtun after a meeting with its then CEO Patrick Moynier. Truxtun is a Swiss based fintech company “providing leading edge technology in the financial payment services industry.” Its principal shareholders are Claudio Realini, Yves Mermier and Pierre Yves Montavon, partners of the Geneva based law firm MMRV.

Moynier, a former diplomat whose ancestor is reputedly one of the founders of the International Red Cross, told Barriol about several patents Truxtun owned for propriety credit card technology – branded as Wega – as well as its existing partnership with Manchester City. Neither had been fully exploited.  

“Truxtun hold patents for a smart credit card. It offers enhanced security and you can integrate rewards programmes and so on,” explains Barriol. “There is nothing wrong with the technology, but it is expensive to manufacture the cards, and other providers – like Revolut – offer better technology for less money.”

A handful of customers

Truxtun’s idea was to utilise its partnership with City as a testing ground for the technology, selling prepaid Wega cards with the club crest on, with the aim of eventually rolling it out to a wider audience. Barriol was hired on a consultancy basis and given the weighty “Head of Global Business Development” title.

Four years on, in an interview with Off The Pitch Barriol reflects on extraordinary period of his life, that saw him put in charge of business development on a multi-million deal with the world’s richest football club, despite the sponsor having no full time staff and gaining only a handful of customers and no apparent economic benefit from the deal.

Barriol also alleges investors have lost money after putting cash into the sponsor’s parent company off the back of its ties to City. He has questioned the due diligence City carries out on its partners.

The revelations could raise further questions about City’s finances and come weeks after the LaLiga president, Javier Tebas, publicly accused the club and PSG of having “inflated value contracts” for some of its sponsorship deals and revealed he had issued a complaint to UEFA about City in April.

In January Off The Pitch reported about how Wega operates from a London mailbox and has no staff or active products, despite being a long term partner of the world’s richest football club.

Quietly withdrawn

Wega first signed as City’s “Club’s Official Acoustic Contactless Secured Card Payment partner” in 2015 and subsequently extended the deal. Its only product was a City branded prepaid card, that was available only for a short period, before being quietly withdrawn. Wega’s website and Manchester City’s corporate partnership page still show the partnership as being active.

Documents obtained by Off The Pitch show that Truxtun agreed to pay nearly £700,000 annually to City since 2018. The partnership dates back to 2015 and Barriol alleges that as much as £4 million has been paid in total to City.

Barriol believes that Truxtun have paid “tens of thousands” per active customer to be associated with City.  

Neither City nor Truxtun Capital responded to our requests for comment or to any of our detailed questions.

Ghosted

Mokhliss Barriol says that there was “a complete failure of due diligence” by City with regards to the deal. 

Barriol further alleges that Truxtun Capital, Wega’s owner, leveraged the partnership with one of Europe’s biggest clubs to gain additional investors for further failed schemes. These include the Wega eSports World Cup and a partnership with Manchester City’s community scheme, Cityzens.

Off The Pitch has met two investors who have collectively lost six figure sums to Truxtun. A third investor is alleged to have lost €2 million.

Off The Pitch asked Manchester City what due diligence it had carried out on Wega and Truxtun Capital, why it had cut off contact with the former executive and how much money it had actually received from Truxtun. City declined to respond to our questions. 

Launch problems

Barriol’s brief included liasing directly with City Football Group staff. The plan was to roll out the credit card and integrate it with City’s digital output, also offering rewards to fans and the club’s Cityzens Giving Campaign. The aim was to get 1,000 sign ups in the first year with a view to gaining 10,000 total users. 

Discussions were slow, compounded by the pandemic, but in depth. By September 2020, according to documents seen by Off The Pitch, City were giving feedback to Wega in such granular detail that it included amendments to be made on user icons within the app.

At this stage the Wega card had been “launched” for 16 months. City and Truxtun had been partners for five years. But apart from utilising some of the matchday tickets and hospitality that came as part of its partnership, it is not clear what benefits Truxtun were getting from the deal. Moreover, the product launch had been disappointing.

“There were only 300 cards in total,” says Barriol. “But 50 of those were giveaways, and of the remaining 250 cards – just 145 were activated.

“There were all sorts of problems. Truxtun understood neither football nor Fintech. They had this idea that by putting a club logo on their product, people would line up to buy it. But fans are more sophisticated than that. Also banking services in the UK are very competitive. People aren’t going to pay an expensive subscription for something that isn’t even a proper credit card.”

City, he says, did some work on the product, “But didn’t care about its success or failure so long as they were paid.”

Customer complaints

According to Barriol the product was also full of bugs, and he believes the low activation rate was due to fans being unable to use the cards.

Off The Pitch has seen a number of customer complaints in relation to the card: “The money is showing as left my bank account but not on my card. Where is my money?” “I am not happy. The money went as ‘faster payment’ and should show immediately. Very unhappy – please explain urgently.” “Please treat this as personal data! Hopefully you can sort this before I arrive at the Etihad and want to spend it using my card??? [Name redacted by OTP]”

In one case a 75 year old supporter took up the card but was entirely unable to activate it. The matter had to be raised with Patrick Moynier in order to get a cancellation and refund.

Nevertheless, the cards were still active until March 2022.

Off The Pitch asked Manchester City to comment on supporters, including those from a vulnerable section of its fanbase, being sold a product that was still in development and not working properly. We also asked what steps were taken to protect customer’s personal data. City chose not to respond to our questions.

We also asked City to comment on its relationship with Truxtun Capital in the four years leading up to Wega’s launch, and whether they considered the lack of previous products or activations normal. We asked them what due diligence they carried out on Truxtun Capital. City chose not to respond to any of our questions.

UEFA complaint

Earlier this month LaLiga president Javier Tebas has renewed his attack on the “impossible” finances of City and Paris Saint Germain, accusing the two clubs of breaking financial fair play rules and threatening the “eco-system” of European football.

The renewed criticism came 24 hours after LaLiga announced it had issued complaints about the two clubs’ finances to UEFA. 

Tebas alleged City and PSG routinely overvalue contracts and use other mechanisms to pay players and skirt around financial control rules.

Photo:

Alamy | Javier Tebas, President of LaLiga

“Normally, sponsorships... and maybe other transactions that they carry out... they are not done at market value, or fair value, they are inflated value contracts,” said Tebas.

“This is one of the characteristics of these clubs so that they can try and fulfil the UEFA financial fair play and even the rules in their country. They are controlled less than would be desirable.”

City cut all contact

Barriol left his consultancy role with Truxtun Capital in December 2020 after becoming aware of what he describes as “shady transactions”. He raised his concerns about Truxtun with City until January this year, speaking with senior managers. This included allegations that Truxtun leveraged its relationship with City to lure in investors, who, according to Barriol, have been ripped off.

But when Off The Pitch published its investigation into Wega on 28 January, City cut all contact with him.

“I think they thought it was me behind the story,” he says. “I didn’t read it for another six weeks and then it all fell into place. It had all the names, details, dates – but really it only scratched the surface.

“This scandal goes much deeper than Man City.”