FOOTBALL: COMMISSION PROBES REAL MADRID LAND SALE.(Brief Article)

The European Commission said on March 3 it was looking into a controversial property deal reported to have netted Real Madrid Euro 480 million. The club's sale of its training grounds to the Madrid city authorities in 2001 wiped out its debts and enabled it to buy world class players such as Zinedine Zidane, Ronaldo and David Beckham. But the authorities were accused of paying for the land at a vastly inflated price in a bid to bolster the club, effectively providing state aid to Real Madrid. A Commission spokesman said the Madrid city authorities did this by re-zoning the training grounds for development, vastly increasing its value, and then buying the site.

If the …