How to bail out your local club: the application of the State aid rules to professional football clubs in financial difficulty

This article analyzes the decisions involving State aid granted to professional football clubs in financial difficulty, namely Willem II, MVV Maastricht, NEC Nijmegen, FC Den Bosch and Valencia CF. The decisions are fundamentally different in one very important aspect: the aid granted to the Dutch clubs was declared compatible aid, whereas the aid granted to Valencia CF was declared incompatible and needs to be recovered. This article will explain why there were divergences in the decisions and will describe the broader lessons that are to be learned, particularly in order to avoid future recovery decisions.