A total of 80,000 companies have submitted applications for short-term layoffs to the Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth. The support is estimated to cost the Swedish state SEK 43 billion. Some of those who applied for the redundancy support are the all-Swedish clubs Malmö FF, IFK Gothenburg, Hammarby and AIK. At the same time as state support has been granted, the clubs have continued to recruit, which Aftonbladet was the first to report on.

According to the Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth, it is possible to replace a sale with a recruitment.

- If you are covered by this support, you have the right to replace or bring in key skills that are needed for the company to be able to continue its operations that none of the laid off persons have. In a company, it may be that some people are laid off while some are on duty, says Richard Källstrand, department manager at the Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth, to SVT Sport.

AIK, which had a tough start to the season in the Allsvenskan, has laid off its staff in the office. Until the postponed start of the series, the players were both laid off and had agreed to a pay cut. At the same time, AIK has recruited four players during August and has not sold a single player.

- Short-term layoffs are not used for the player squad and the leaders. There are a few different departments within a company and a principle to try to stick to. Then we follow the existing regulations and we have been granted the support, and then we have done the right thing, says Björn Wesström, CEO of AIK fotboll AB, to SVT Sport.

Despite the fact that the Swedish transfer window has closed, Björn Wesström points out that AIK still has the opportunity to sell players.

- We still have the opportunity to sell because the transfer window is still open internationally. It is quite reasonable to believe that you can sell players if you want to.

Richard Källstrand at the Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth does not want to go into any individual examples. But right now, the authority is investigating several companies where it may be relevant that they are forced to pay the support.

- We investigate a number of companies, but then I do not want to go into which companies or industries it is about. But it is in all possible industries. It's about tips or that we have received other indications that we need to look more closely at to investigate. Should it turn out that you are not entitled to the support, you may be liable for repayment, says Richard Källstrand.

Are there gaps where companies can use the redundancy support?

- I would like to answer the question like this that we at the Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth have received very good tools for following up approved applications. We look at all applications and reconcile and ensure that everything goes right in each individual case. We have been given good conditions so that this will go right.

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