Council adjusted value of public contract by €555m days before court ruling affecting Real Madrid

The controversy surrounding Real Madrid’s plans to have an underground car park built with direct access to the Santiago Bernabeu continues to run on. After a decision to revoke the award of the contract to Real Madrid Estadio, a sister company with only Real Madrid General Manager Jose Angel Sanchez as an administrator, it has been revealed that the value of the public contract was dramatically reduced.

Just five days before that ruling, Madrid City Council decided to adjust the value of the contract from €561m to €6m, a difference of more than half a billion. The Council explained decision to El Confidencial.

“When it comes to European advertising, we have to stick to parameterized models, identical for all EU countries, in which the data, sometimes, does not coincide exactly with what we use. That is why there was confusion when setting the amount of award, because in this contract the award amount was not an expense for the City Council, but rather an income. But this is noted when the data is uploaded to the Contract Registry. The general contracting department requires us to rectify it.”

The same outlet report that sources in construction and planning law note that this is not common practice in the field, and still less so that it should occur just five months after the contract was drawn up.

The €6m corresponds to the €150k that Real Madrid Estadio will pay to the Council annually over the 40-year lease, rather than the potential value of the parking spots. Construction company Acciona have already been contracted for the €70m cost of building the necessary tunnel and parking, while Real Madrid have also committed to €21m in maintenance over the four decades.

It remains to be seen if Real Madrid Estadio are granted the licence again for the contract, after being caught out, having not carried out the correct environmental studies to apply for planning permission. There is little suggestion that the project will not go ahead, and RME were the only company in the bidding last time for the contract, despite the margins of over half a billion euros in profit projected for whomever runs the parking lot.

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