Madrid court halts Bernabeu development plan

The Supreme Court in the Community of Madrid has decided to temporarily suspend plans for the remodelling of Real Madrid's Santiago Bernabeu Stadium.

The proposed remodelling of the Bernabeu includes the construction of a shopping centre and a roof for the ground, but environmental group Ecologists in Action sought to halt development plans and the Court Friday for the moment accepted the argument, reports Xinhua.

Meanwhile, the judges also took into consideration a European Union investigation into possible illegal state aid for the project as the result of several land exchange agreements which Real Madrid reached with the Madrid Local Authority, which are suspected at being below the true market value.

The EU Commission notified Spain by letter Dec 18, 2013, that it would open an investigation over possible help by the Madrid Local Authority to "resolve a judicial question pending which refers to a permutation of immovable property."

The Supreme Court commented that while it does not at this moment correspond to them whether or not the project constitutes illegal state aid, it believes there are "indicatory elements sufficient to determine a direct connection between the EU investigation and the object of the current (Ecologists in Action) case."

The Local Authority approved a new Urban Development Plan to allow the 400 million euro project to go ahead and has said they will appeal against the decision, while Real Madrid have 10 days to decide if they too will launch an appeal.