Footbal clubs owe almost 500 million dinars for pensions only

Footbal clubs owe almost 500 million dinars for pensions only

Football clubs in Serbia avoid paying pension and health insurance to their players and other employees.

For example, football club "Red Star" from Belgrade owes more than 205 million dinars only for pensions, while FC "Partizan" owes around 20 million, according to "Blic."

Their debts have co called "hibernation status", and their bank accounts will not be blocked as long as they pay their current bills.

Still, remains the question how did they get into a situation like this, because they are not paying gross earnings to their employees and players for years!

- The Social security law prescribes fines from 100.000 to one million dinars for such violations. But, the use of this law is very weak, and because of that - there is no payment of these fines.

The second problem is bringing the responible ones to court of justice. Sometimes is much cheaper to pay the fine than to fulfill a legal obligation -  spokeperson from NALED (National Alliance for Local Economic Development) said for "Blic."

Tax Administration blocked FC "Red Star's" account for additional 500.000 euros. Not because of an old debt, but because of the new debt calculation, according to which Red Star has to pay tax on land. Not to mention that the football club is not the owner, but only the user of that land.

This was the reason for several meetings of club's board members and IRS, in order to make some kind of arrangement.