Filenews 5 April 2025 - by Eleftheria Paizanou
The grace period is over and there will be no tolerance with the debts to the state, the Commissioner of Taxation Sotiris Markidis clarified in a strict tone to the presidents and representatives of the football clubs of the first division that participated in yesterday's meeting at the Ministry of Finance.
The meeting may not have lasted long (about 30 minutes) but it was substantial, as the required messages were given and strict recommendations were made. According to information from "F", the Tax Commissioner clarified that in case of a new phenomenon of non-compliance of any association with the repayment plan, he will not hesitate to take the necessary measures. As he said, there can be no lawlessness and if necessary he will activate the extreme measure of freezing the bank accounts of the unions. This would put the football companies in the two straits, which would have no cash to operate.
"Demand of society and fans"
As "F" is informed, the Superintendent told the football executives that this is their last chance, pointing out that it is a demand of society and fans to pay their obligations.
He also indicated to them that their debts should not be increased further and that he would not accept the repetition of the scenario of previous years. The entire management of the plan is in the hands of the Tax Department, which, as the Registrar told them, will closely monitor its implementation every month. In case they miss three instalments, they will be automatically eliminated from the plan. Subsequently, all the sanctions provided for by the legislation will be applied.
The instalments
Along with the instructions, each team also received an envelope, which includes the letter with the plan of the 145 instalments to be paid as well as the amount of the monthly instalment that each club will have to pay.
Specifically, after the reintegration of APOEL, Apollon, Anorthosis and Ethnikos Achnas into the plan, the amount of the new instalments was determined until the full payment of their debts.
As "F" is informed, through the 145 instalments, APOEL will have to pay about €75,000 per month, as its total debts exceed €11.6 million.
Apollon, with the payment of 40% to 50% of its new tax debts, will have to pay around €26,000 every month for debt repayment of €3.8 million
The monthly instalment of Anorthosis (it has already paid part of the new debts) will be around €22,000. The total tax debts of Anorthosis amount to €3.2 million.
Ethnikos Achnas, which has tax debts of more than €1.2 million, will have to pay an instalment of around €8,000 every month.
In relation to the unions that did not create new debts to the Tax, they were given a detailed statement of the remainder of their debts. In addition, the file included for those associations that have other obligations to the Tax Department, e.g. they have not submitted some tax returns.
They are burning for the debts in the Social Insurance
Theoretically, an order has been put in place with the tax debts of the unions, but this is not the case with the debts to the Social Insurance Fund. Debts to social insurance exceed €10 million, while administrators of APOEL and Anorthosis have already been brought before the Court. These executives had been prosecuted for non-payment of contributions to the Social Insurance Fund, the Leave Fund, the Redundant Personnel Fund, the Human Resource Development and Social Cohesion Fund and the GHS.
It is not excluded that APOEL and Anorthosis will have the fate of other teams in case they do not comply. However, the representatives of the unions seem to be particularly burned for the debts to social insurance, as many do not have a plan for the settlement of debts. The legislation on debts to the TCA provides for criminal prosecutions and not the freezing of property and bank accounts, as allowed by the Tax Department.
