PARIS: The offices of French club Nantes have been raided by police investigating tax evasion allegations against president Waldmar Kita writes KEIR RADNEDGE.

Nantes are already a subject of controversy over the tragic death of Argentinian forward Emiliano Sala who was killed in a plane crash off Guernsey immediately after concluded his transfer to Premier League club Cardiff City.

The clubs had agreed a £15m fee but eyebrows were raised when Nantes, even before Sala’s body had been retrieved from the sunken plane, pressed Cardiff for payment of the first instalment of the fee.

French police searched club offices at the La Jonelière training centre in Nantes and also premises in Paris.

Kita, 64, who has denied wrongdoing, was born and brought up in Szczecin, Poland, and built a highly successful optics and beauty treatments business.

He bought the Swiss club Lausanne in 1998 but the outfit was declared bankrupt three years later. In 1998 he was rebuffed in an initial attempt to buy former French champions Nantes but was successfully eventually in 2007.

His son, Franck Kita, is the club’s managing director.

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