The chairman of the União de Leiria football team, Russian Alexander Tolstikov, one of his advisors and the corporation’s financial director were all arrested this week as part of a police operation named ‘Matrioskas’.
The arrests came after PJ police carried out searches on the headquarters of the União de Leiria, Sporting and Benfica football teams as well as at the Braga stadium on Monday.
The PJ said an investigation was launched at the start of last year into suspected money laundering, fiscal fraud, forgery of documents and the criminal association of national and foreign citizens connected to sport.