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August 24- August 31,2003 |
Italy's usual financial pre-season saga
Country's soccer clubs still owe 500 million euros in unpaid tax and pension contributions
By Mehrdad Masoudi
Originally Published: 2003-08-17
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Di Canio and Mendieta
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Lazio has managed to pull free of their embattled owner after a recent 110 million-euro share issue left former president Sergio Cragnotti with a vastly reduced stake in the Serie A club. Lazio had been struggling to avoid financial collapse after parent company Cirio, a food firm majority-owned by Cragnotti, defaulted on a one billion euro bond payment last year. The tinned-food company was last week granted insolvency status by a Roman bankruptcy court, a week after its shareholders had voted to liquidate the firm.
Many of Lazio's players went unpaid for several months last season because of the financial crisis and striker Claudio Lopez started legal action to recover five months' worth of wages.
Despite their problems Lazio qualified for this season's lucrative Champions League after coming fourth in Serie A. Cragnotti's stake in Lazio has plummeted to 2.9 percent from 43.7 percent following the club's share issue.
Property group Magiste International, a major investor in bank Capitalia, increased its holding to 11.6 percent, while a group headed by entrepreneur Salvatore Ligresti took a seven percent share through hotel chain AtaHotels.
Meanwhile, it was revealed this week that Italy's professional soccer clubs owe 500 million euros in unpaid tax and pension contributions. The investigation into cash-strapped clubs from the top three divisions included interest and fines on the debt and showed the hardest hit are in Serie B and C.
Lia Ghisani, president of Italian pensions body Enpals, has claimed that half of the Serie A clubs had settled their debts with Enpals while the other half were locked into a five-year repayment scheme.
But Serie A clubs still face serious debt problems in other areas with another report showing they had a combined operating loss of 948 million euros for the season 2001-2002.
The most recent figures from consultants Deloitte and Touche put the total debt in tax and pensions for Serie A clubs by the end of the 2001-2002 season at about three million euros.
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