ian1964 10,409 Posted January 1, 2014 Share Posted January 1, 2014 European Commission investigates Liberty Stadium funding deal A deal allowing Swansea City FC and the Ospreys rugby region to play at the Liberty Stadium is being investigated by the European Commission. Swansea council has been asked to give details over funding arrangements at the council-owned stadium. The commission is carrying out a Europe-wide investigation into state aid in sport. State aid rules, policed by the commission, limit how much public money can be given to private companies. The £27m Liberty Stadium was built in 2005 with the Swans and the Ospreys both playing there. The clubs pay a peppercorn rent to the Swansea Stadium Management Company (SSMC) - a body running the stadium which is a partnership between the council and the two clubs. The clubs also contribute over £1m a year to the running costs of the stadium with any profit made being returned to the teams and the local authority. However, it is understood so far that SSMC has failed to ever return a profit which means the council is yet to see a return on its investment. State aid Following a freedom of information request to the council, it confirmed questions had been raised about the agreement and whether it complied with state aid regulations. The council added there had been no assurances given by the European Commission about whether the deal complied with regulations governing state aid. A Swansea council spokesperson said: "The European Commission has asked us a number of questions in relation to the Liberty Stadium and currently we are in dialogue with them, as are a large number of sports clubs from across Europe." If it is proved that the use of the Liberty Stadium breaks European law, then both clubs could face having to pay back money, plus interest. A spokesperson for Premier League Swansea City said: "The club is aware that the European Commission is currently in discussions with Swansea City Council in relation to the Liberty Stadium. "We have asked to be kept informed of any future development." The Ospreys have been contacted for a response. The European Commission investigation is looking into alleged illegal state aid involving several clubs including Spanish giants Barcelona and Real Madrid. Legal advice Meanwhile, Carmarthenshire council said it had not been contacted by the commission over Parc y Scarlets, where Scarlets rugby region have played since 2008. Earlier this month, the authority denied claims by a funding expert that it had broken regulations in the way it gave more than £20m to Scarlets. The council said it remained confident about independent legal advice taken in 2007 that state aid rules did not apply in this case. Parc y Scarlets and related facilities cost £25.4m to build, and £18.3m was provided in differing forms by Carmarthenshire council. The land is owned by the authority but the stadium and surrounding land has been leased to the club for 150 years. The European Commission said it had not been notified of these payments. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-south-west-wales-25559959 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ian1964 10,409 Posted January 1, 2014 Share Posted January 1, 2014 I've just emailed the European Commission asking if they will be investigating GCC state aid to Celtic FC http://europa.eu/europedirect/write_to_us/index_en.htm and added this link for them http://footballtaxhavens.wordpress.com/2013/12/26/lennoxtown-worth-over-30-million-westhorn-between-5-10-million/ I don't expect a reply however. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ian1964 10,409 Posted January 7, 2014 Share Posted January 7, 2014 Got a wee reply! Brussels, date of email Acknowledgement of receipt SA.36872(2013/CP) - Alleged aid to Celtic Glasgow Subject : Enquiry about the possible state aid given to Celtic FC Sir/Madam, The Directorate-General for Competition has received your correspondence dated 2014-01-01 (Registration: 2014/001242), concerning the subject referred to above. DG COMP Registry if you have any question or problem, please contact the Registry at stateaidgreffe@ec.europa.eu 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ian1964 10,409 Posted January 17, 2014 Share Posted January 17, 2014 http://footballtaxhavens.wordpress.com/2014/01/17/only-thing-impaired-at-westhorn-appears-to-be-the-price/ 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Super Cooper 0 Posted January 18, 2014 Share Posted January 18, 2014 11 of the 14 GCC committee who voted for Celtic to be sold land for £1 were all Celtic fans with 7 being shareholders and the other 4 season ticket holders. http://economicsfc.wordpress.com/2013/04/09/celtic-fc-and-state-aid/ 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doc 280 Posted January 18, 2014 Share Posted January 18, 2014 11 of the 14 GCC committee who voted for Celtic to be sold land for £1 were all Celtic fans with 7 being shareholders and the other 4 season ticket holders. http://economicsfc.wordpress.com/2013/04/09/celtic-fc-and-state-aid/ If that's not a conflict of interest then I don't know what is. You can bet the media would have been all over it if it had been Rangers supporting councilors voting us a hand out. The silence is deafening. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Super Cooper 0 Posted January 18, 2014 Share Posted January 18, 2014 If that's not a conflict of interest then I don't know what is. You can bet the media would have been all over it if it had been Rangers supporting councilors voting us a hand out. The silence is deafening. The difference is, their club and their fans would not sit back and leave it alone, both of them would be all over the authorities and media to act. The apathy within the Rangers family is sickening. Too busy fighting amongst ourselves. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RANGERRAB 3,254 Posted January 18, 2014 Share Posted January 18, 2014 (edited) When you see what Swansea City are being investigated for then you would think Celt@c havent a leg to stand on. Supporters/Shareholders in local government and government bodies selling them land at a fraction of its true value then using this land as security to get loans at the land's true value arranged by the club chairman and a director who were MPs in national government at the time. these loans were at unheard of rates of interest from a now basket case bank. You couldnt make this up could you? Edited January 19, 2014 by RANGERRAB 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
barca72 440 Posted February 7, 2014 Share Posted February 7, 2014 Here is the latest from Footballtaxhavens. Surely there is a possibility that this could impact the CG athletes themselves. Why is this not in the MSM? Does anyone know a foreign journalist who may be interested? http://footballtaxhavens.wordpress.com/2014/02/06/more-verification-on-westhorn-land-2/ More Verification on Westhorn Land Posted by footballtaxhavens ⋅ February 6, 2014 ⋅ 2 Comments Filed Under Celtic FC, Commonwealth Games, Glasgow City Council, Westhorn Verification no.1 The map above is from the Clyde Network Green Network Strategy document created in 2007 by Land Use Consultants. It was prepared for Glasgow City Council, South Lanarkshire Council, Scottish Enterprise, Communities Scotland and the GCV Green Network. So the document is endorsed by all those bodies. Westhorn in Yellow is classified as ’Occasional inorganic & organic contaminants‘ – that is low contamination. While the Commonwealth Athletes Village at the river bend is classified as Blue which means ‘Elevated concentrations of inorganic/organic contaminants‘ – which means high contamination. The Commonwealth Athletes Village had much more contamination than Westhorn. So when Glasgow City Council want to show their ‘Green environmental‘ credentials there is little impairment however, also in 2007, when they want to show their ‘Green Celtic‘ credentials the impairment was suddenly higher to make a ‘valuation’ lower for a sale. Suddenly there’s an 84% impairment. Who would you trust – Land Use Consultants whose document in the public domain & whose reputation is backing the document or Glasgow City Council that keeps a Geotechnical document hidden from repeated FoI requests? I hope when Glasgow City Council cleared the land for the Commonwealth Athletes Village they re-mediated the soil, dug it up & replaced it with clean soil. And that the residents living close by were advised to remain indoors & keep their windows closed? Verification no.2 The aerial photograph above was taken in 1952 of Belvidere Hospital in the foreground and just beyond is the Westhorn land and the neighbouring property is fields as was stated in the previous post, a dairy farm. It’s just fields and fields …. I would like to thank the persons who sent both pieces of information above. .« Doubts on Impairment on Westhorn Land.Discussion 2 thoughts on “More Verification on Westhorn Land” ho ho ho ho ho how the fook can they get away with 84% reduction in price yet the athletes village is built on contaminated land. Posted by drew p cock | February 6, 2014, 1:11 pm Reply to this comment I googled contaminated land sold in Glasgow and came across a file from sepa.org unfortunately it’s not on a web page it just goes straight to a pdf file but it states that 4.6 Public registers The Contaminated Land (Scotland) Regulations 2000 set out what information local authorities are required to place on a public register. This information relates to: the location and extent of any formally determined contaminated land sufficient to enable it to be identified; the name and address of the person who claims they have carried out remediation; a description of anything claimed to have been done by way of remediation and the period within which it is claimed each activity was performed. Appendix B contains a list of local authority addresses where the public register relating to the contaminated land regime can be viewed. The prescribed information for special sites where SEPA is the enforcing authority, please go to the appropriate regional office for the area in which the contaminated land is situated. couldn’t find glasgows public register of contaminated land online but to give an idea of what is in a register here is an entry from aberdeenshire 1 Former Blackdog Landfill Pollutant Linkages: 1. Leaching of hydrocarbons and percolation through the unsaturated zone to groundwater. Pollution of controlled waters is occurring. 2. Migration under gravity of free phase hydrocarbon from wastes deposited in the unsaturated zone and floatation of free phase hydrocarbon to the water table from wastes deposited below the water table. Solution of hydrocarbons to groundwater from light non-aqueous phase layer. Pollution of controlled waters is likely to occur glasgows public register is situated at Glasgow City Council 229 George Street Glasgow Lanarkshire G1 1QU Posted by gary platt | February 7, 2014, 12:44 am 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
andy steel 0 Posted February 7, 2014 Share Posted February 7, 2014 Since when was Glasgow in Lanarkshire? 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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