Debt relief for FCs?
Despair and indignation have overwhelmed those who expected that soccer would at last be purged of corruption after the final ban on direct or indirect financing from public funds. Unfortunately, the much-touted sports law introduced by Evangelos Venizelos has proved no more than a bubble of unfulfilled promises by the Socialist administration, as it is a mishmash of half-measures which can only provide superficial or ephemeral improvements. First, the law abolishes the relegation of soccer clubs whose owners violate fundamental financial obligations. This means that indebted as a soccer club may be, it is not threatened with relegation and is under no pressure to pay its debts. This paves the way for a consequence-free perpetuation of soccer teams’ indebtedness, which also foreshadows the official cancellation of their debts at a better political juncture in the future. «Many soccer clubs – in my view, the majority of them – will not be able to come through an audit and will suffer the penalties which are foreseen by the legislation on societes anonymes,» Venizelos said in a press conference yesterday, indirectly admitting the political expediency behind the government regulations: They did not want to force many teams into relegation in an election year. Another clause in Venizelos’s law raises serious suspicions of indirect debt relief for soccer clubs through shifting a part of the debt on to shareholders or individuals: in cases of forgery, withholding of VAT and criminal offenses. Anyone who knows anything about football is aware that a large part of the money owed by soccer teams is related to players’ transfers, where forgery is not such a rare phenomenon. Lifting these debts off the shoulders of the soccer teams and imposing them on some large shareholder effectively writes these debts off and renders their collection from an individual inevitable. This provision can only help the government rid itself of some of its proteges, big shots of the soccer underworld who have become stumbling blocks to government policy. No one will feel sorry if these murky figures are removed from the world of soccer. However, instead of purging soccer of corruption and intertwined interests, the government is promoting measures which result in the public sector, meaning taxpayers, shouldering the financial burden by perpetuating and, ultimately, writing off, soccer clubs’ debts. It’s a shame.
