so what, it's not a sporting organization.

 

"The government will fight to defend Spanish clubs because they're also part of the Spanish brand," said foreign minister Jose Manuel Garcia Margallo.

normally I thought they would say something like: "We will give the investigators full Corporation to show that no wrongdoings have been made"

 

Yeah, exactly. It's an investigation; they haven't been charged yet.

 

The Commission was also probing Real over their training facilities

State aided training Facilities?

Arent RM the richest in terms of Revenue....Popularity... Brand

Does that mean a potential ban from Europe and no more La Decima for the next 10 years?

Oh... Barca too!... surely they do not need state-aid, they dont need much money, their players are all super rated and underpaid... and Happy.

EU wrong to investigate Barca.. Just Wrong!

 

EU is becoming out of control, trying to suppress every last bit of socialist remnants. I don't agree with the way these clubs run things, but they are owned by fans, owned by the City, have significant cultural impact so I don't see it as a problem it City of Barcelona put in a few billion to help out.

 

it becomes a problem when EU spends billions to support Spain and to create jobs there and then they find those billions were all spent on Gareth Bale migrating.

 

They should investigate Port Vale. Our Council gave them soft gits about 2 million quid they never saw back. Where are You are on that one You European Union ****ers!

In all seriousness though, surely it's nothing to do with them? What they stick their noses in nowadays is getting beyond a joke.

 

They should investigate Port Vale. Our Council gave them soft gits about 2 million quid they never saw back. Where are You are on that one You European Union ****ers!

In all seriousness though, surely it's nothing to do with them? What they stick their noses in nowadays is getting beyond a joke.

Read Johans comment.

 

A lot of Swedish cities should be investigated aswell

 

Barcelona, Real Madrid, Osasuna and Athletic Bilbao are accused of contravening European Union rules because they are still owned by their members

All the teams should be owned by their members, and not by mafiots. That would be the ideal thing.


But in an ideal world EU wouldn't exist.

 

First of all, what the fvck has the general level of corruption in Spain, blood samples and EU investigation into possible case of state aid in common?

The idea of private entities not being somehow subsidized by member states, is one really important piece of EU legislation but weirdly there are quite a lot of ways and conditions using which state aid is allowed. And its pefectly normal that the member state woukd stand for their interests. These all include anti-dumping, state-aid etc .

The amount of investigations done, is not exactly small. Currently for example you have a fairly large number of national carriers being investigated for potential cases of state-aids due to the overall shitty state of the aviation industry.

So up yours, for the ******* trying to paint this as part of their picture of bad spanish football clubs being bailed out by the noble Germans. Its an investigation into possible case of state aid where the EU comission is whether looking to determine whether what has happened to the clubs is against the EU rules and if so, these to be ceased immediately and possibly some fines if not done so. And The EU Commission gets it wrong a lot of times.

 

First of all, what the fvck has the general level of corruption in Spain, blood samples and EU investigation into possible case of state aid in common?

Spanish teams are getting aid from Spanish government who is getting aid from EU.

This money should be going into job creating and education, but is being given to spoilt millionaires so they can continue to buy expensive cars and their handbags (ronaldo).

The clubs need to win to facilitate their spending so hire doctors to dope their players, which also keeps the general masses a bit calmer as their team is playing well and winning.

These doctors of course aren't on the breadline and will ask for a lot of money to keep quiet and try to maintain the status quo of the Spanish team's successes since 2008, and also Barca's level of success over the same period.

Thus goes the circle, and all are happy in ignorance.

 

http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-13-192_en.htm

Just a hint that the whole Da Vinci code like train of thought might suit a David Icke attended conferences.

1. As explained before, its EU commissions job to investigate whether state aid has been given. But as far as i see it, one could actually make a good case that keeping Valencia alive actually keeps a number of jobs available. Which is moot point as youd need a permission beforehand.

You point out the Ronaldo handbag situation but when in fact the investigation is into clubs like Levante whose summer signing process looks something along the lines of who is available for free or on a free loan. As well as pointing out that clubs like Bilbao, Osasuna, Barca, Real are actually fan owned and therefor weirdly act as sort of non-beneficiary organisations. I know some like to make jokes about it but all of these clubs are more then just a billionaires playtoy or Amercians investment.

2. Given that the Spanish sports system does not seem to have a clearcut advantage over others i tend to think that they do not dope as much. GB has seen an outbreak of a lot of top pedigree cyclists during the past seasons. This was done because of a revised system and improved investments. To justify investments, using the same logic, Gb would be inclined to use doping as well.

So its only the BS allegations that go around in circles.

 

So let me get this straight. Real Madrid, Barca, Athletic and Osasuna are being investigated for being owned by their fans while clubs like Chelsea, Monaco etc. are owned by Russian mafiosos which god knows where their money comes from? Then PSG and Man City should be investigated as well for having Arab owners who's money came from foreign slave blood.

Not saying Real and Barca are angels and need to be looked at for other things (TV revenue sharing eg.) but this is absolutely ridiculous by the EU.

 

So let me get this straight. Real Madrid, Barca, Athletic and Osasuna are being investigated for being owned by their fans while clubs like Chelsea, Monaco etc. are owned by Russian mafiosos which god knows where their money comes from? Then PSG and Man City should be investigated as well for having Arab owners who's money came from foreign slave blood.

Not saying Real and Barca are angels and need to be looked at for other things (TV revenue sharing eg.) but this is absolutely ridiculous by the EU.

Fire with Fire, Ignorance with Ignorace. roud:

 

Average Spanish youth doesn't care if he has no job and no future as long as his football team do well.

 

EU are a criminal organization out to destroy and crush people and crush whatever socialist spirit is left. I fully support the Spanish clubs on this. The plight in Spain right now is due to the EU. Barcelona are actually pretty well off compared to the other cities. The City should be able to pump in as much money as they want.

 

Socialist spirit? Real Madrid?

Nationalism is far more dangerous than even communism in the eyes of the EU, btw.

 

The EU investigates three separate issues:

1) Real Madrid, FC Barcelona, Athletic Bilbao and Osasuna are fan-owned clubs, and as such pay less tax in Spain than privately owned (25% instead of 30%). The four clubs managed to avoid the transformation into plc, when Spanish government made it nearly obligatory for professional clubs some decades ago.
2) Real Madrid's dealings with City of Madrid in 2011 regarding building their training grounds.
3) The loans (or "loans") given to Valencia, Hercules and Elche by Provincial government of Valencia.

I'm not here to troll fans of other Spanish clubs, so I won't comment on 2 or 3. Number 1 is an important issue for Barcelona though. In an apocalyptic scenario (for which there is a low probability to happen though), the named clubs may be forced to transform into plc. There is a rumoured interest of Perez to do it (where he would end up as (majoritarian) owner of RM), so if EU finds fan-ownership wrong, I hope Spanish sport authorities don't find the privatization of the clubs as a solution of the problem. Undoubtedly there would be sheikh money or Russian mafia money interested in part-ownership of the Spanish giants, I just hope that the Rat Rossell and his doppelganger Perez don't get an idea how to sort the debt issue of both clubs.

 

Well, in the case of Real Madrid and Barcelona the problem is not so much that they would have to transform into PLCs, but whether they would be forced to compensate that tax difference you talked about since 1990.

In fact, when this information about PLCs was released some months ago, Florentino himself said that in that case Real Madrid would then have a budget of about740 million euros and the difference with other clubs would get even bigger. I guess it wouldn't be too dramatic for Barcelona under similar terms either.

 

The EU is pretty much the antithesis of "nationalism". We're one big happy European family according to them. **** that.

 

No Bankia involvement in Gareth Bale deal, insists Perez

http://www.goal.com/en/news/12/spain/2013/12/19/4490850/bale-deal-not-financed-by-bank-insists-perez

Dec 19, 2013 6:13:00 PM

The Real Madrid president is adamant that the world-record transfer in September was not funded by Spanish bank Bankia, amid claims to the contrary

Real Madrid president Florentino Perez has denied that Spanish bank Bankia helped finance the world-record transfer of Gareth Bale.

The Welsh winger signed for the Bernabeu outfit from Tottenham in September for €100 million, sparking claims by Dutch MEP Derk Jan Eppink that the bank, which was bailed out by the Spanish government last year, had helped pay the fee.

But Perez moved to vehemently deny those claims on Thursday.

"We have not done a deal with any financial body, for the umpteenth time, as I've said ad nauseam," he told Desayunos Deportivos de Europa Press.

"People in football know what's actually going on and what is not.

"Bankia did not pay for the transfer of Gareth Bale, we completed it using our own resources. The financial statement was made public and all our shareholders have a copy of it.

"Now it's said that [Bankia] helped transfer Bale to us and it's a lie. Real Madrid paid for him with significant resources and I'm a little annoyed to have to speak about it."

At the time of his complaint, Eppink threatened to refer the case to the European Commission, who on Wednesday confirmed that they would be investigating the legality of public funding at Real, as well as Barcelona, Athletic Bilbao, Valencia, Osasuna, Elche and Hercules.

Perez believes there is "a campaign against Spanish football".

Meanwhile, the Commission is also set to look into whether the reported land transfer between the City of Madrid and Real involved any state aid in favour of the club.

"In regards to our business with the Ciudad Deportivo (Sports City training ground), there was a complaint and a subsequent investigation," added Perez. "They wanted to hurt us but nothing happened."