New scandal hits Spanish football

LONDON: In the latest scandal to hit football, top Spanish teams that include Real Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia are being investigated for receiving illegal state aid.
The EU Commission said Real Madrid, Barcelona and Athletic Bilbao may also have unfairly profited from corporate tax privileges not granted to other clubs.
The Commission opened "in-depth investigation" into public funding Spanish professional football clubs.
The Commission on Thursday said it has opened "three distinct in-depth investigations to verify whether various public support measures in favour of certain Spanish professional football clubs are in line with EU state aid rules. None of the measures was notified to the Commission, who was alerted by concerned citizens".
The Commission said it has concerns that these measures provided significant advantages to the beneficiary clubs to the detriment of the clubs which have to operate without such support.
Commission Vice President in charge of competition policy Joaquín Almunia said "Professional football clubs should finance their running costs and investments with sound financial management rather than at the expense of the taxpayer".
The Commission will firstly investigate possible tax privileges for Real Madrid, Barcelona, Athletic Club Bilbao and Club Atlético Osasuna.
In another inquiry it will assess whether a widely reported land transfer between the City of Madrid and the club Real Madrid involved any state aid in favour of the club.
Finally, it will examine the compliance with EU state aid rules of guarantees given by the State-owned Valencia Institute of Finance for loans that were used to finance the three Valencia clubs Valencia CF, Hercules CF and Elche CF, while those clubs were seemingly undergoing financial difficulties.
The Commission said "All these measures were financed through state resources and provide advantages to specific clubs that carry out economic activities in the EU internal market. The measures are therefore likely to affect competition and trade between member states.
Real Madrid is under scrutiny for supposedly benefitting from a very advantageous real property swap with the City of Madrid. This swap was based on a re-evaluation of a plot of land at a value of EUR 22.7 million, instead of its earlier supposed value in 1998 of EUR 595 000.
In April, Spain’s Sports Council said Spanish soccer clubs owed the government 670 million euros in taxes.