London Stadium state aid complaint unresolved
The LLDC Investment committee is due to meet next week on 20th December and the report says the stadium owners are still awaiting a response from the EU despite replying over a year ago.
The report written by LLDC Acting CEO Gerry Murphy says: “We are still waiting for a response from the EU regarding the complaint made in relation to state aid on the Stadium. The Corporation’s response to the complaint was sent on 6 September 2016. In November 2017 the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy contacted us with correspondence from the EU notifying us that they would be releasing the non-confidential papers from our response to the complainant unless we expressly refused permission. Permission was given, however additional redactions were applied to our response letter following legal advice as it would impact on current legal action. No update on the status of the complaint has been received.”
The original state aid complaint was raised in 2011 by an Architect but has already been closed so this is a new complaint from an interested party which most likely a rival football club. State aid is mentioned 39 times in the recent Moore Stephens report into the London Stadium and there appears to remain a risk that the European Commission could open an investigation.
The complaint is believed to centre on state subsidy accruing to a football club as a result of beneficial terms for the stadium lease and possibility of state subsidy arising as a result of financial support on preferential terms from public sector body to a football club.