Sporting is the latest club on an increasingly comprehensive list, following the landing of Mexican Grupo Orlegi
The times of economic prosperity are over. Thousands of families are aware of this and are being hit hard by inflation. But not only homes are affected. Spanish football has not been able to avoid the recession. The loss of purchasing power has led major foreign investors to get into a football game in which business is becoming increasingly important, with the consequent risk of losing part of its identity. The story that Dimitri Piterman started writing in January 2003, an American businessman of Ukrainian descent who came into the hands of Racing, has a new chapter with the landing of the Mexican Grupo Orlegi in Sporting.
Nearly twenty years have passed since Piterman took control of the Cantabrian club after taking his first steps in Palamós. He was the pioneer in these conflicts. The man who, apart from his eccentricities, paved the way. And it is that, although there are images for posterity that are unimaginable today, he acted as a forerunner of this movement.
Of the unpleasant memory that still lingers on the shores of the Cantabrian Sea, his comics still fly over the memory of Spanish football. Able to acknowledge himself as a photographer, wear a bib or find another ruse to position himself a few feet from the sidewalk amid endless shrills. It wasn’t enough for Piterman to be the owner, first at Racing and later at Alavés. It had to be the bride at the wedding, the child at the baptism, and the dead man at the funeral.
Wrapped in a thousand and one controversies, his shadow continues to haunt Spanish football. Even two decades later, his name is still rigorously current. Recently accused by Alavés of ongoing crime of “embezzlement, false accounting and corporate crime”, his figure, even today, continues to give something to talk about.
But now everything has changed. What previously seemed an isolated case is already a ‘boom’ in Spain. The United States, Mexico, Brazil, Qatar, Saudi Arabia or China are just some of the foreign countries represented in the upper echelons of Spanish football. It’s not strange anymore, it’s the new times. A long list with Zaragoza, Leganés and the aforementioned Sporting, headed by Alejandro Irarragorri, the last to join this year.
Almost fifteen years in which the arrival of foreign capital, in a hyper-globalized world, has already been the order of the day. Up to eight First Division teams and half a dozen Second Division teams, although one, in the case of Malaga, is subject to judicial intervention, are owned by a natural representative from another country on a clear upward trend. Or, which is the same, up to a third of clubs affiliated with the body chaired by Javier Tebas, so critical of Manchester City and PSG, whom he has accused of ‘cheating’ on more than one occasion.
In recent years, Spanish football has seen the landing of sheiks, tycoons, big businessmen, investment groups, etc. from outside the borders. The Peter Lim, Ronaldo Nazário, Christian Bragarnik, Chen Yansheng or Turki Al-Sheikh are just some of the protagonists of this new era. The road that Piterman premiered not so long ago and that now continues, among other things. A fervent example of the change of panorama.
If Piterman monopolized much of the limelight twenty years ago, it is now the figure of Peter Lim, perhaps the most mediatized. The one who was praised on his arrival in Valencia, already ravaged by debt, and who eight years later questions his prestige in the city of the Turia, where the “Lim go home” sounds ever stronger, already a classic at the foot of mestalla.
Times when Spanish football has also witnessed the arrival of its first sheik. Twelve years have passed since Al-Thani, today separated from Malaga management while under investigation by Spanish justice, took the witness of Fernando Sanz. From leading the Boqueron team to making Champions League history – blue and white fans will hardly forget that controversial quarter-final game at Signal Iduna Park against Borussia Dortmund, to experiencing one of their most critical moments.
It’s not all bad news, though. The three clubs recently promoted to LaLiga Santander start with a common point: they all have foreign ownership. Turki’s Almeria, Ronaldo’s Valladolid and Girona of the City Group have returned to the top tier, with teams like Mallorca, Espanyol and Elche consolidating, also relying on investment from outside Spain’s borders.
But in a football with more and more business, that path wouldn’t be all about personal projects. There are not a few business groups that are committed to the football industry, with the City Football Group, owner of Manchester City, among others, as the largest reference. With the tutelage of more than a dozen clubs, with Italy’s Palermo the latest addition, Spain is not escaping its networking with Girona, which will return to LaLiga Santander next year, in hands since 2017.
Gone are the days when the clubs depended on their partners, a matrix that only Barcelona, Athletic, Real Madrid and Osasuna keep in the First Division. Only these four entities managed to get around the Sports Act of 1990, which at the time forced dozens to become a Sports Limited Company. New times for a new football.
Source: La Verdad
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