German soccer club Bayer Leverkusen was ordered by a Cologne court Wednesday to pay back 16 million euros ($20.3 million) to creditors of a bankrupt electricity provider that had paid sponsorship money to the team.

The sponsor, Teldafax, originally gave Leverkusen the money between 2009 and 2011. But the company's insolvency administrator, Biner Bähr, successfully argued that the club knew Teldafax was bankrupt when it accepted the payments.

Appeal under consideration

"We are disappointed and surprised that the facts and many of our arguments were not taken into consideration," Leverkusen's chief executive, Michael Schade, said on the club's website. "We will now wait for the full judgement and then consider if we will lodge an appeal."

In its ruling, the court said Teldafax already had sponsorship arrears worth 3.5 million euros by October 2009 and had asked to defer payments several times.

The court said it should have been obvious to Leverkusen management that the company was insolvent by then.

In Germany, even payments made before bankruptcy proceedings are opened can be reclaimed by creditors, if the state of an ailing company was known. The idea is to prevent the creditor asset pool from being skimmed before actual proceedings begin.

Historic bankruptcy

Over 700,000 people lost their money when Teldafax collapsed in 2011 in what was the second largest bankruptcy in German history.

Media reports called the company strategy a snowball system in which it used prepayments by new customers to buy electricity on the open market, which it then sold cheaply to fulfill contracts with existing customers.

It is unlikely Teldafax creditors will see very much of their money again.

bew/hg (dpa, Reuters)