The offices of German professional football clubs have been searched because of public prosecutor's investigations against the secondary ticket dealer Viagogo.
FC Bayern, FC Augsburg, 1. FC Nürnberg and Hamburger SV confirmed searches on request after the "Augsburger Allgemeine" reported on the actions on Wednesday.
The Mannheim public prosecutor is investigating suspected tax evasion, as the authority announced on Thursday.
Against whom, she didn't say.
Clubs or players are not affected.
Viagogo confirmed the investigation on Thursday. The second ticket dealer announced that it would cooperate with the authorities. "We are aware of an ongoing investigation into tax payments in Germany," said a spokesman. Viagogo fully complies with all tax obligations in the markets in which they operate. "We are cooperating with the relevant authorities and are confident that this matter will be resolved in a timely manner," said Viagogo.
Second division club VfL Bochum announced that “several representatives of the club were heard as witnesses”.
“Various contract documents and other documents from a cooperation at the time were secured.
Neither VfL Bochum 1848 nor current or former employees are accused. ”The association“ fulfilled all disclosure obligations transparently and in full ”.
Viagogo serves as a platform for ticket sellers - for example at sporting events or concerts.
Viagogo charges a fee on the ticket price, which is also charged at the time of purchase.
However, the platform is considered controversial by some football fans, and there have been frequent calls for boycotts in the past.
FC Augsburg emphasized that in the investigations by the tax authorities, no current or former employees are part of the proceedings as accused, but rather appear as witnesses. Nuremberg confirmed the investigations with a virtually identical statement. FC Augsburg also announced that they had a contractual relationship with the company “over seven years ago”. The Nuremberg-based company also worked with the company “up to seven years ago”.
On Thursday, FC Bayern said on request: “In the investigations that the Mannheim public prosecutor's office is carrying out together with the tax investigators at FC Bayern München AG - apparently as with many other football clubs - neither FC Bayern Munich nor any of its agents are involved Previously acting persons, a superordinate football organization or a football association are the subject of the investigation. Rather, they only come into consideration as witnesses in the course of investigations against a third company. "