Footballers demand cut from betting taxes

Footballers’ association Pasp chairman Spyros Neofitides on Friday demanded that his association be given a cut of the income generated by taxes levied on takings by betting shops.

He said that allowing his association a cut of the state’s takings would constitute a “fair distribution” of the money, saying that “if football did not exist, the state would not receive revenues amounting to €100 million per year that it gets today.”

“It is at this point that everyone, and especially the state, should remember that football without footballers does not exist. In short, the state benefits a huge amount thanks to the protagonists of the sport, those who compete every weekend and beyond,” he said.

He added, “like the teams, footballers also provide opportunities for bets to be placed, both competing in their teams and individually,” before asking, “what percentage legally, but also based on logic, should our association receive?”

He pointed out that his association was granted a “small percentage” of the takings in 2019 to set up the ‘Red Button’ scheme – a tool created to educate players on matters such as match fixing and to allow them to report instances of match fixing to the relevant authorities.

“This was created on the one hand to protect footballers from suspicious matches but on the other hand to help the state and the authorities identify the mobsters who are infesting Cypriot football,” he said, adding that footballers and Pasp “fully meet our obligations towards the state”.

For that reason, he said, “we call on the state, President Nikos Christodoulides, and Finance Minister Makis Keravnos, to ask themselves how important a role Pasp plays in Cypriot society and grant justice and what is right to everyone.

“The multi-level actions our association takes against the various negative phenomena which afflict sports and by extension our society is carried out at our own expense.”

With this in mind, he said successive governments “have not considered how they can help and strengthen our efforts in various areas, such as in the fight against gambling addiction and regarding information about anabolic substances, educating and training footballers, and the development of programmes to educate them on issues such as racism and violence.”

The government’s current plan regarding the tax on betting shops is to increase the amount payable by the shops and then then increase the amount paid to the Cyprus Football Association (CFA) from 1.5 per cent to three per cent.

The aim of this change is to then allow football clubs to use that income to repay the millions of euros owed to the state in unpaid taxes and social insurance payments. That figure currently stands at €32 million, with multiple previously agreed payment plans not having been adhered to by the clubs.

According to the audit office, out of the 19 clubs which owed unpaid taxes in 2023, five had not made a single repayment since the plan was agreed, and 14 have since accumulated new tax debts.

It is hoped that this money earned by increasing taxes on takings by betting shops, which is distributed by the CFA to the clubs will then be used by the clubs to repay their debts over the next 13 years, with the repayment deadline under the current plan set at June 2037.

The European Commission will be notified of the bill, with the aim of determining whether it complies with the European Union’s rules on state aid before it passes into law.

This is because concerns have been raised that the increase in taxes on takings by betting shops to help football clubs pay their tax debts may constitute illegal state aid.

The European Commission typically takes a dim view of football clubs being offered financial assistance or tax exemptions by their national governments, as has been shown in previous decisions.

In 2016, the Spanish government fell foul of the relevant regulations, and was ordered to make seven football clubs, including football giants Barcelona and Real Madrid, repay state aid given to them.