CELTIC have hit out at "baseless accusations" that they benefited from state aid in historic land deals after an investigation was launched by the European Commission.
The rebuttal came after the commission received a number of complaints relating to the purchase of land around Celtic Park and asked for detailed information from Glasgow City Council and the Scottish Premiership club.
Its training complex was built on the grounds of the disused Lennox Castle Hospital in East Dunbartonshire.
Celtic dismissed the claims as "ludicrous" and said: "Celtic Football Club operates to the highest standards and with the utmost integrity.
"At a time when the Club is committed to investing in and improving areas around Celtic Park, not only for Celtic supporters but for the benefit of the local community, it is sad that these baseless accusations have been raised with the European Commission.
"Any suggestion that Celtic has been the beneficiary of state aid is preposterous - as ludicrous as any suggestion that we have benefited from soft loans from our bankers. The historic transactions referred to were negotiated with the council on commercial terms at market rates. The club will assist the commission fully with the process and will not be deterred from our work to improve our local area."
A Glasgow City Council spokesman said it had assisted with the investigation and added: "The council was happy to provide information on these transactions."
A Scottish Government spokesman said: "We are aware of these allegations and we are working with the relevant parties to help the commission to investigate this case consistent with our role to ensure public funds in Scotland are used in compliance with EU state aid regulations."
He said the transaction between NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and Celtic is not part of the EC investigation, but added: "We are also aware of it and are discussing it with the relevant parties."
The commission is already investigating allegations that Real Madrid and Barcelona illegally received Spanish state aid.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article