Campeonato Brasileiro Série A football club Palmeiras has opened a police investigation into Real Arenas, the company that manages its Allianz Parque stadium, over alleged financial irregularities.
In a statement issued yesterday (Wednesday), Palmeiras alleged that WTorre-owned Real Arenas has amassed debts totalling more than R$127m (£20.1m/€23.5m/$25.2m) as of March.
The club has alleged that, since Allianz Parque opened in November 2014, Real Arenas has paid just seven months’ worth of the money it owes to Palmeiras, resulting in “enormous” financial losses for the club.
Palmeiras said that “such deliberate and evidently illicit” behaviour by Real Arenas and its representatives has led to the club initiating the police inquiry. The case is being led by the 23rd Police Station of São Paulo.
The club’s statement was released after Real Arenas had itself published a statement saying that it was not aware of the police investigation. Real Arenas criticised Palmeiras president Leila Pereira and labelled the debt claims as “false information”.
The Real Arenas statement, reported by Maquina do Esporte, said: “The president has repeatedly disrespected the decisions of the Arbitration Court, which is processed in secrecy, and tries to unjustifiably harm the reputation of the SEP (Sociedade Esportiva Palmeiras) partner company.
“This new and unreasonable attack does not match the serious management of Real Arenas, which invested in the construction of Allianz Parque, recognised as the best stadium in Latin America.”
Allianz Parque has a capacity of 43,700. Last month, Palmeiras claimed a first with successful full roll out of facial recognition technology to gain entry to the stadium.
