⚖️ Legal win for Madrid: the council to pay the club €20 million | OneFootball

Total victory for Real Madrid in the European justice system. After a long and complex litigation, the European Commission has closed the case of the land parcels and ordered the Madrid City Council to return to the white club the nearly 20 million euros it had to pay years ago. This decision puts an end to a dispute initiated by Brussels, which was rectified by the highest court of the European Union.

The origin of the conflict dates back to 2011, when the club and the City Council agreed on a land exchange. This agreement sought to compensate Real Madrid for a plot that could not be delivered (as planned in a previous 1998 agreement, the sale of the old Sports City) due to a change in the Land Law.

However, in 2016, the European Commission classified this exchange as "undue state aid." The investigation concluded that the value of the parcels received by Real Madrid was overvalued by almost 18.5 million euros, granting it a supposed "unjustified advantage." Therefore, the club was forced to return about 20 million euros (including interest) to the municipal coffers.

European justice already sided with Madrid

Real Madrid did not accept the fine and appealed the decision to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU). In 2019, the high European court sided with the club, ruling that the land transaction was in line with market prices and, therefore, did not constitute any illegal aid. The ruling was clear: the 20 million had to be returned.

Despite the ruling, the return of the money was put on hold by the City Council. There were hesitations, and even the European Commission initially recommended not complying with the return, according to municipal sources.

20 million... plus interest

Now, the European Commission has corrected itself and formally complied with the CJEU's ruling. It has been confirmed that Brussels is asking the Madrid council to proceed with the return of the money to the club, definitively closing a case that has lasted more than a decade.

The delay in executing the 2019 ruling, however, will have an additional cost. The final amount that the City Council will have to return to Real Madrid will be significantly greater than the initial 20 million euros, due to the interest accrued over all these years of litigation.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇪🇸 here.

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