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ARCHIVED - Alicante football clubs investigated over fraud allegations
Alicante province's Hercules CF and La Nucia are amongst 10 clubs being questioned in fraud probe
Alicante football clubs Hercules CF and La Nucia are currently under investigation as part of a country-wide probe into social security fraud.
Investigators from the Labour and Social Security Inspectorate, accompanied by the Guardia Civil, have visited both of the club's facilities this week to interview players and management, and collect documentary information over allegations of fraud by various football clubs in the second B and third divisions.
According to police sources, several footballers from both teams had to leave training to be questioned by investigators on Wednesday November 10, as officials probe possible fraud and other crimes linked to "the use of undeclared money committed by sports entities, which leave professional sportsmen and women unprotected".
Similar inspections and interviews have been carried out at other clubs in Murcia, Algeciras, Cádiz, La Rioja, Salamanca, Badajoz, and the Balearic Islands.
"These actions are related to the fight against corruption in sport and fraud, after detecting a widespread practice in the use of undeclared money in the world of football and especially in the clubs of the former second B and third division," explained police sources.
The investigation was launched after a letter was sent to the Royal Spanish Football Federation signed by 11 second B division clubs in 2020, in which they denounced the comparative disadvantage suffered by clubs that paid their players legally and duly paid Social Security contributions.
As a result, the Guardia Civil's economic crime specialists, with the support of the National Anti-Fraud Office, launched a campaign to detect the possible offences of Social Security fraud committed by the different clubs.
The practice is not only detrimental to the Social Security System, which receives fewer contributions, but means, in this case, the footballers themselves are "deprived of the rights they are entitled to under the social security system due to their employment relationship with the clubs".
The investigation is ongoing.
Image: Hercules CF Facebook
