Foros de la Plataforma por una Vivienda Digna

[billy]

When Juventus and the other bad boys of Italian football received their match-fixing punishments earlier this month, there was a certain amount of Schadenfreude being enjoyed in Spain. ‘‘Il Calcio’’ has never been popular with their cousins across the Med. There is little interest in the Scudetto and the perception that Italian teams play a boring, defensive style of ‘‘anti-football’’ will never disappear, despite the unusually cavalier style adopted by the World Cup-winning ‘‘Azzurri’’.

When the news of the points deductions and relegations for Juventus, Fiorentina, Roma and AC Milan filtered through, it was a chance for many in the Spanish game to take the moral high ground and lampoon the perfidious Italians once again. Unfortunately, this stance may be a little premature, as Spanish football’s own day in football’s corruption court must surely be overdue- especially if the news of the past few days is anything to go by.

When looking for dodgy dealings in Spain, the first port of call must always be Marbella-a city in the headlines yet again for all the wrong reasons. Over the past few months, a police investigation-‘‘Operation Malaya’’, has uncovered evidence of fraud, illegal payments and embezzlement on a massive scale, involving members of the town’s former council and a number of local construction companies.

As the forest of cranes across the region show, the building business is booming on the Andalusian coast and across much of Spain. Unfortunately, not all of it is legal. In Marbella, land that should never have been sold was reportedly being done so at vastly-inflated prices after reclassification by local officials. The result is that the vast majority of the illegal developments built on this land will now be torn down.

Recently, Spanish TV news filmed the arrest of one of the chief suspects in the case, former Mallorca Mayor Julian Muññoz, who is accused of having taken a 150,000 euro cash backhander. By his side and issuing a statement on his behalf was a familiar figure in Spanish football - Sevilla president Jose Maria del Nido. As well as being the head of a UEFA Cup-winning team, del Nido is also a lawyer with some experience in corruption trials.

Of course, there is nothing technically wrong with this arrangement. Muññoz is entitled to a defence and del Nido is free to take on any client he wishes. But should someone so heavily involved in a game still reeling from a massive scandal be associated with a leading suspect in a high-profile organised crime case? Strangely - or not, perhaps - there has been no discussion of this question in the Spanish media. This is even more unusual considering that this is not the first time football in Spain has been linked with such unfortunate events.

Another former mayor of Marbella was a man named Jesus Gil. The now-deceased Gil is a legendary figure in Spain, a man for whom the word ‘infamy’ was invented. In 1999, Gil was arrested and briefly imprisoned having been accused of embezzling $3million of public funds to spend on his football team, Atletico Madrid, where he had been president since 1987. He was eventually found guilty in 2000 of influence peddling and sentenced to six months in prison. Fortunately, his lawyer, a certain Jose Maria del Nido, was able to have it quashed on appeal.

In February 2003, Gil was back in court facing fraud charges surrounding the stock market flotation of Atletico Madrid and the ongoing mis-management of the club since 1992. His punishment was a 16 million euro fine and three-year jail sentence which was later appealed. It was only his eventual death in May 2004 that saved him from another spell in prison. His son Miguel Angel Gil Martin and Enrique Cerezo-both directors at the time also reveived prison sentences of 18 months and one year respectively.

Cerezo is now president of the football club and Gil Martin is Director-General. Last week, at their summer retreat in the mountains to the North of the city, Atletico Madrid unveiled a statue of Jesus Gil and held a short memorial service. Again, barely a murmur on how inappropriate it was to celebrate the life of a man who stole from public funds and brought shame upon his club. Not forgetting the fact that he was also found responsible for the deaths of 58 people by building an apartment block - which collapsed without plans, permission, architects or surveys. Fortunately, his good friend, General Franco let him off.
The construction industry is currently at the heart of a growing Spanish economy. For a country that imports ten times more than it exports, it is perhaps the only thing holding it.

It is very big business and with the stakes so high, it would be no surprise at all to find that Marbella is just the tip of a potentially large iceberg, with building companies and politicians profiting in a bonanza of back-handers and bribes all over the country. It is for this reason that the leftist Spanish government is currently looking at new ways to control the apparent lawlessness of the industry.

Interestingly, the Spanish league is packed with club presidents who either own construction companies or who have a background in property, including those at Valencia, Alaves, Celta Vigo, Osasuna and the last two at Real Madrid.

Pure coincidence, of course. Especially, as there does not seem to be anyone in Spain willing to prove otherwise.
http://www.vanguardngr.com/articles/2002/sports/july06/29072006/sp729072006.html