Authorities recover tax payments from FC Lugano ex-players

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A recent investigation, carried out by the Swiss tax office into the finances of the club which went bankrupt in 2002, has reveled that the club was paying at least part of the players' wages in cash, to avoid paying tax on the entire salaries.  Swiss Revenue office discovered a CHF1.87m shortfall in tax and social payments. Since the players agreed to receive part of their wages through the official route and the rest in cash, the authorities had decided to recover payments of more than CHF2m from Swiss nationals and foreigners still playing in Switzerland. However, there are no international treaties that allow pursuing players who left the country, therefore the authorities could not collect payments from number of players such as Brazilian international midfielder Mauro Galvao, former Belgian international Marc Emmers, Russian international Igor Shalimov and French Ligue 1 club Monaco striker Mohamed Kallon.  "If we can find the addresses of some of these players, we will write to them and ask for the money back, but I don't expect they will pay up", Stefano Pelli, the Swiss Revenue spokesman told media.