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Mexican tax authorities seize Puebla FC's stadium over unpaid debt
Mexico's Tax Administration Service has seized Puebla's stadium over an unpaid tax, but the club's administration claims the previous president is at fault for the debt.
Jan 13, 2012 4:27:00 PM
By Nick Rosano
Twitter
Players and staff at one of the most storied provincial clubs in Mexico could do little but watch as tax authorities dismantled Puebla FC's locker room and front offices. Gone were computers, soccer balls, furniture. Even the team bus was seized.
Friday morning's raid by the Servicio de Administración Tributaria (Tax Administration Servicio, roughly the Mexican equivalent of the American IRS) came as a result of an unpaid 14 million peso (approx. US $1 million) tax bill levied as part of a 2007 audit.
However, in a letter released to the media on Friday afternoon (the full Spanish text of which can be found here), the club claimed that the current administration is not at fault for the debt, rather the administration of the club's previous president, Francisco Bernat. The letter further claims that Bernat was in charge at the time the tax was levied and failed to provide the proper documentation of the debt to the club's new president, Ricardo Henaine, who took over the club from Bernat in October 2010, assuming all its debt.
Henaine is a wealthy local businessman who owns a number of businesses and properties in the Puebla area, including the Valle Fantástico amusement park, which has been a source of ongoing conflict between Henaine and the local government after a judge ruled in Feb. 2011 that the property had been illegally given to Henaine in 2004 by the then-governor of the Puebla state and that the government had the right to occupy it.
The letter released this morning that the seizure of the club's stadium, offices and equipment were not independent of the government's conflict with Henaine, and that the seizure was in fact part of a threat made in Nov. 2010 by the state's Secretary of Legal Services and Government Ombudsman Juan Pablo Piña that the government would attempt to strip Henaine of his properties if he did not turn over control of the park.
The letter claimed that in addition to the seizure being "arbitrary" and "a grave offense against soccer and Mexican fans" that the seizure was part of the state government's ongoing "political persecution" of Henaine and that the club would move to take legal action over the seizure as soon as possible.
American winger DaMarcus Beasley, who is currently on the books at Puebla after joining in the summer of 2011 and was at the stadium while it was being seized, chronicled the experience on his official Twitter account.
"Wow," he tweeted. "The government seized the stadium today! Couldn't even park n the stadium. Alot of problems right now! Nothin can get out the stadium!"
Pictures posted to Beasley's account showed government officials removing a TV from the wall of Puebla's locker room while a group of players posed in front of them.
Beasley continued to describe the scene, writing on the social media site, "Never in my life I see something like this! Jus heard the government officials seized our bus too when we left the stadium! Everything!!! Had to take everything from the locker rm that was personal! They were even taking the soccer balls and everythin in the equipment room!"
However, the team bus was found to belong not to the club, but to one of its sponsors, Estrella Roja, meaning the government could not seize it and the team will be able to make the 90-mile journey to face Pachuca on Saturday evening.
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