OREANDA-NEWS. The Commission found that four clubs (FC Den Bosch, MVV Maastricht, NEC Nijmegen and Willem II, Tilburg) received aid but that the support complied with EU State aid rules. A land transaction concerning PSV Eindhoven involved no aid as it took place on market terms.

Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, in charge of competition policy,said: "When public authorities hand out subsidies there is a risk of competition distortions. Professional football clubs are businesses and the Commission needs to make sure that the economic competition between clubs isnot distorted by state subsidies for a select few. In the Dutch cases, we found that the measures respected State aid rules and did not distort competition."

In March 2013, the Commission opened an in-depth investigation to assess whether measures granted by five municipalities in the Netherlands in favour of professional football clubs complied with EU State aid rules. EU State aid rules apply to public interventions in the market to ensure that they do not distort competition by selectively favouring one market participant over another. Professional sport is an economic activity. Football clubs conduct marketing, merchandising, TV broadcasting, transfer of players etc., and compete at international level. In many cases, professional football clubs have significant turnover. EU State aid rules ensure that public funding does not distort competition between clubs. They protect the level playing field for the majority of professional clubs who have to operate without subsidies.

As the clubs under investigation were in financial difficulties, the Commission assessed the measures in the light of the 2004 Guidelines on State aidfor rescuing and restructuringfirms in difficulty. The Guidelines aim to ensure that rescue and restructuring aid only goes to companies that have a realistic viability prospect and that take measures to alleviate the distortions of competition caused by the State support.

The Commission's investigation found that a realistic restructuring plan had been implemented for the football clubs Den Bosch, MVV, NEC and Willem II. The clubs significantly contributed to the cost of their restructuring and agreed to take measures limiting the distortions of competition created by the public funding, such as reducing the number of employees, the number of registered players and players' wages.

The Commission also investigated the sale and lease back transaction of the municipality of Eindhoven in favour of PSV Eindhoven concerning the land on which the Philips stadium and a training block were built. The Commission found that this transaction had been carried out on terms acceptable to a market investor. In its assessment the Commission took account of an independent external valuation report that formed the basis of the transaction.

The Commission therefore concluded that the measure concerning PSV Eindhoven involves no State aid within the meaning of the EU rules and that the measures concerning Den Bosch, MVV, NEC and Willem II were in line with the 2004 Guidelines on State aidfor rescuing and restructuringfirms in difficulty.