IN THE end the government’s attempt to settle the issue of the tax debts of the football clubs, through an absurd repayment scheme that would be covered by the taxpayer, proved a gross miscalculation. Rather than settling the matter, once and for all, which was the government’s objective, the scheme has not been implemented because the clubs that would benefit refused to make the minimum payments demanded by the finance ministry, as a condition for activating the scheme.

In fact, the government has been embarrassing itself ever since it announced the scheme towards the end of last year. The finance minister had set as a condition for activating the scheme, which would cover tax debts in the region of €30 million, the payment of the most recently incurred debts that amounted to some €5m and were mainly owed by five clubs by the end of 2024. Not a cent was paid by then so the Tax Commissioner, reportedly prepared a charge sheet against each club, and the president urged him to enforce the law.

This resolute approach did not last long. Bosses of four clubs with the biggest debts were granted a meeting with the Tax Commissioner so that a compromise could be reached, but they were not even prepared to pay half of the amount demanded for activation of the scheme; they offered to pay less than a million and the remainder over the next few months. There was no deal, but no action was taken by the Tax Commissioner, who is probably acting on the advice of the finance minister.

With nothing agreed another meeting was held on Tuesday – six weeks after the payment deadline – at the tax office and the heads of the five clubs who were present were given even more time to come up with the money. Now, according to Cyprus News Agency, they have until the end of March to come up with some form of payment. It is very unlikely the clubs will come up with a sizeable amount by then – the €5m is out of the question – which would lead to another embarrassment for the government, which never understood who it was dealing with.

While the club bosses were running rings round the government over the tax debts, the Social Insurance Department has pressed charges for debts to the Social Insurance Fund. As Labour Minister Yiannis Panayiotou said after Wednesday’s cabinet meeting, the law governing the payment of social insurance contributions was different to that for taxes, as it had no provision for repayment schemes of unpaid contributions. Non-payment leads to criminal charges and a court sentence. Where will clubs find the money to pay their debts to social insurance and the tax department?

What will the authorities do, faced with insolvent clubs, whose motto has been ‘can’t pay, won’t pay,’ because they know governments are terrified of enforcing the law and alienating football fans? This fear of losing votes is the reason all governments have turned a blind eye to the systematic law-breaking by the clubs over the years, allowing them to accumulate tax debts of which they cannot repay a small fraction. The choice for the government is clear – it can allow justice to run its course and suffer the big political cost or it can carry on being humiliated by the club bosses and also suffer a big political cost.