(24)The activities of professional football clubs and football agents are exposed to risks of money laundering and its predicate offences due to several factors inherent to the football sector, such as the global popularity of football, the considerable sums, cash flows and financial interests involved, the prevalence of cross-border transactions, and the sometimes opaque ownership structures. All those factors expose football to possible abuse by criminals to legitimise illicit funds and thus make the sport vulnerable to money laundering and its predicate offences. Key areas of risk include, for example, transactions with investors and sponsors, including advertisers, and the transfer of players. Professional football clubs and football agents should therefore put in place robust anti-money laundering measures, including carrying out customer due diligence on investors, sponsors, including advertisers, and other partners and counterparties with whom they transact. In order to avoid any disproportionate burden on smaller clubs that are less exposed to risks of criminal misuse, Member States should be able to, on the basis of a proven lower risk of money laundering, its predicate crimes and terrorist financing, exempt certain professional football clubs from the requirements of this Regulation, whether in full or in part.