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16th March 2018
Features
MTK Global expands further into the football business
MTK Global, the boxing management company founded by alleged criminal Daniel Kinahan, has expanded its move into the football industry by agreeing a partnership with the Kanu International Football Academy (KIFA), founded by former Arsenal player Nwankwo Kanu. The move follows the company’s launch of MTK Football, a player agency headed by Danny Vincent, who announced the partnership with the Nigeria-based academy.
The partnership is designed to identify young Nigerian talent for professional football clubs through the 100 football centres in 36 states across Nigeria set up by KIFA. ‘It is the first major move for MTK Football following their ground-breaking launch last week, and all parties are delighted with the new partnership’, read a statement. However, a representative of KIFA contacted by The Sports Integrity Initiative appeared to be unaware of MTK Global.
MTK Global has recently partnered with the UK’s Academy of Sports Education to launch six academies around the UK designed to educate young people towards a career in boxing. In June last year Kinahan was personally thanked by boxer Tyson Fury, who is represented by MTK Global, for arranging his two fight deal to face Anthony Joshua (see below). Dates and venues for the fights have yet to be decided.
It’s official FURY VS JOSUAR AGREED FOR NEXT YEAR, I got to smash @bronzebomber first then I’ll annihilate @anthonyfjoshua #WEARESPARTANS
MASSIVE THANKS TO DANIEL KINNERHAN FOR MAKING THIS HAPPEN.???????????????? god bless pic.twitter.com/18FfVKfCax
— TYSON FURY (@Tyson_Fury) June 10, 2020
Kinahan appeared in a 2017 video alongside an alleged drug trafficker who is currently being tried in The Netherlands, reported The Irish Sun last week. MTK Global attempted to distance itself from Kinahan in a statement issued in May last year, shortly before Fury thanked him for setting up his bouts against Joshua.
Kinahan denies any connection to criminality, and announced that he was stepping back from MTK Global (then MGM) in 2017. But in a statement issued to TalkSport this year, he confirmed that he is still advising boxers. The ability of MTK Global to operate whilst taking much lower cuts of a boxer’s purse has raised concerns about how it is financed.
