Auditors of the Spanish FA's accounts have flagged up a total of 17 million euros in unusual loans made to Atletico Madrid and six regional federations during recent years.
The loans have been made public in the latest round of a row between the Spanish FA president Angel Maria Villar and Spain's secretary of state for sport Miguel Cardenal, who has called for exact details of how all the state-funding received by sporting bodies is spent.
The Spanish FA [RFEF] maintains its accounts have been audited as usual, and that the government has no cause to intervene in its internal affairs. The row has become increasingly personal, with an official RFEF statement accusing Cardenal of "not telling the truth" and "abusing the law and his power." The politician has responded by challenging Villar to a public debate where the issues can be clarified.
Documents from auditors BDO appearing in AS on Wednesday show loans totalling six million euros made to eight different regional federations during 2012 and 2013, with the auditors saying no information has been supplied over terms of payment or interest being charged.
AS also claims that current La Liga champions Atletico Madrid received "financing" of 11 million euros between 2012 and 2013. These monies were listed in the RFEF's accounts as two "advances" of UEFA prize money, something criticised as an irregularity by auditors BDO.
AS has also reported that the Spanish government will now ask for the return of eight million euros from the RFEF, which is the total received between 2010 and 2013 from the publicly-run quiniela (pool bets), and is supposed to be spent on youth football and improving facilities nationwide.
The director general of Spain's national sports council (Consejo Superior de Deportes) Ana Munoz said in Marca that the issues could be resolved by dialogue, while suggesting that Villar and the RFEF refused an offer to discuss the matters.
"I am convinced that all of us involved in this issue will contribute to the normalising of relations, for the law to be followed, and for us to be able to speak of sporting matters, which in the end are the most important," Munoz said. "Two people do not argue if one does not want to. We can all sit down together, if we wish to do so. I believe the Consejo Superior de Deportes and its president Miguel Cardenal has offered many times for us all to sit down at the same table."
One of the federations which received a loan was the Real Federacion de Futbol del Principado de Asturias, which on Tuesday evening called a stoppage in all amateur and youth football overseen by the federation for the weekend of Feb. 7-8. The Asturian federation has issued a statement saying the move is in response to the government severely cutting funding of its activities.