Newspapers reported earlier this week that the Tax Department was, at long last, preparing cases against four football clubs for unpaid tax debts. The reports, which named the four clubs, were not denied by the Tax Department, which avoided any official comment on the matter. It will come as no surprise if it turns out that the department’s plan to prosecute was made public as one final warning to the clubs that refused to pay a small part of their debts incurred in the last two years, by the December 31 deadline set by the government.

To be eligible to have their old debts totalling €31.5m paid by the state through an increase of the betting tax from 3 to 4.5 per cent, the clubs had to settle the tax debts (€4.1m) incurred since April 2023 – when the government’s latest repayment scheme came into play – by the end of 2024. We can only guess that they failed to do so, and the authorities are making one last bid to persuade them to pay the amounts required for them to get on the state subsidy scheme. But the clubs, accustomed to never paying, are not even prepared to come up with the money required.

Apoel which has the biggest tax debt – €11.6m – would have the taxpayer cover almost all of this, if it had paid €668,000 owed under the last repayment scheme by December 31, something it has clearly not done. Other big debtors, like Anorthosis, Ael and Apollonas, have also not paid and were named in the press reports as likely to face criminal charges. Now, the club bosses have reportedly been asking for a meeting with President Christodoulides in the hope that he will give them another reprieve so they can carry on taking the state for a ride.

Press reports suggest the president has taken a hard line and will not be meeting the club bosses. On Thursday, he reportedly called the Tax Commissioner and told him to proceed with his prosecution plans. Christodoulides has understood there could be no going back for the government now and that this mockery, which has gone on for 25 years, must end. The embarrassing level of tolerance to the systematic law breakers by successive governments should have ended years ago and the club bosses punished. This would have happened if there was a rule of law.

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It has been suggested that if the clubs make the necessary payments now there would be no prosecutions, even if they missed the end of year deadline. There is, however, another problem that would have to be dealt with. The commissioner for state aid control had written to the finance ministry last year saying that the repayment schemes for tax debts, approved by governments in the last 25 years could constitute state aid. She called for an end to the tolerance displayed and for the debts to be collected as soon as possible. This was before the government announced the latest scheme – using tax revenue to pay off club debts – which was a blatant case of state aid and is certain to land Cyprus in trouble with the EU.

Christodoulides’ hard line after the clubs failed to make the end of year payments deserves praise as the mockery cannot go on. He should not back down now.