Paco Ojeda: “Before in the Federation they were anti IES La Orden, now they are impartial” | Huelva24

The Recreativo IES La Orden will play next season in the Division of Honor, the highest category, where it is undoubtedly the best club in recent years. A bureaucratic procedure that the Spanish Badminton Federation magnified sentenced them to one season in the First Division, but It already has all the sports machinery in place for the new project. It will keep your template block, you are already searching sponsors and will maintain a second team, the Colombino, one category below. You are aiming for your best, but you need support. Your sporting and technical director, Paco Ojeda, reviews the entity’s recent past, which has been damaged, and the imminent future, in which despite the fact that there is much to do, illusion reigns. In September they face a competition with nine other teams that still do not know if it will be played with an initial phase of two groups of five and subsequent crosses.

QUESTION.- How do you feel after the happy news that the IES La Orden returns to the highest category?

ANSWER.- We are very happy. We had prepared a project to be in the Division of Honor in two years, but we have taken care of all the details and taken steps to bring about the return in a year and it has come hand in hand with a profound restructuring of the League. At no point have we let our guard down and we have seized the opportunity. Thanks to our work last season, always being at the highest we could be, we have had the opportunity. All First National clubs have had the opportunity to be in the Honor Division and it has been offered to them, but we have been prepared to qualify for one of the two places.

Q.- The Federation, which at the time did not value the specific weight in national badminton of the IES La Orden, has it done so now?

R.- The predisposition of the new leading team of the Spanish Federation has nothing to do with the attitude and way of acting of the previous team. From last summer back in the Federation they were always anti IES La Orden. We were greatly affected in many aspects and the biggest was the decline, in which there was zero predisposition on the part of the leaders to solve what I consider a small bureaucratic issue, which could be solved in a thousand ways less than how it was done.

Q.- The Huelva club was already affected by the non-dispute of the 2020 League final.

R.- The League final that was not held is a shame and even more so when we have been able to see that each and every one of the national competitions has been played, such as the final of the El Rey Football Cup, which was played more than a year later. They closed in that no, that the season ends on June 30 and it was not appreciated that we are in an exceptional situation. The important thing was to play the final, above the available players at all times. Thinking about all that is already getting pissed off and knots in your stomach. The softest word there is to describe all this is shameful, a manipulation.

Q.- Now renewed airs have entered the Fesba.

R.- The predisposition of the leaders is absolutely different and it shows in many things, even on social networks. They are being impartial, with the IES La Orden and with all the clubs and it has been demonstrated with the expansion of the League. We have all had this opportunity and we have been in the front row and we have taken advantage of it.

Q.- Despite the good structure that the club has, has knowing in July that you will compete in the next category has caught you on the wrong foot?

R.- A little against the foot has caught us. There have been deep and late changes and we doubted that we would have this opportunity, because May and June passed and it was finally confirmed on July 19, when we were already teaming up for the First National. We have maintained the sports structure of the club and we will continue like this and we have the experience of having won several titles. We have a team to play in the league and we have won because we have been able to read the season well and put emphasis on the team at all times to be on the competitive front line. We won four leagues in a row and we had the intermission of 2015 with a short team and injuries and we fell in the semifinals with a tight score. We could be talking about eight titles right now.

Q.- In sports, everything seems to be channeled, but economically it is necessary to work to regain the financial support required for the highest category, right?

R.- It has been very difficult to offer a return to sponsors. We have lost a lot and one of the joys of regaining the category is that now we can offer the return that we must offer to the sponsors. We will have, within the crisis, some more facilities and we will be able to fight and work in better conditions to balance the economic part of the project. It is our wish and we are already working a lot because that battle is tough, the sports one is tough, but this one more.

Q.- Can names of players who will continue in the team be confirmed?

R.- We will announce what the composition of the squad will be, but the block will remain. The team is very excited. I remember that one of the first people I called was the lawyer Paco Muñoz, who helped us so much on this journey and gave him great joy. All the players were very happy and gave very wide smiles. They are eager to start this sporting challenge at the level we want to be.

Q.- Will the IES La Orden be a candidate for the title?

R.- Without a doubt, it can be said that we will start from the first day, at the end of September, with the clear intention and possibilities of being in the final. Then the season will unfold. Not being able to prepare the season with as many months as always, it will cost us more effort, but we start with all the possibilities of being in the final.

Q.- What do you know about the rest of the teams? Who do you see upstairs?

R.- Today we do not know anything. In fact, the restructuring of the League is so deep that to this day we do not know if two groups of five will be played and then there will be crosses or the system will be different. We are 10 teams and the schedule and composition remains to be seen. We anticipate that the blocks will remain in the rivals and there will be some additions. There will be Pitiús, Oviedo, Rinconada and Arjonilla, who reached the semifinals last year. Benalmádena can also be one of the teams that aspire to be there.

Q.- Do you expect the public to return to the stands and launch a season ticket campaign as usual?

R.- We understand that as the pandemic evolves, public entry will be allowed. It will not be one hundred percent and it will be with the appropriate security measures. We are counting on it and in the next few days we are going to launch the subscriber campaign 21-22, which we have been developing continuously. Hopefully the response from the fans is great and overwhelming, because it would mean a great social and economic support that we need.

Q.- In the new season you keep the second team, the Colombino, what objective will you have and what young players are standing out to be relief in the future in the first team?

R.- They will play in the First National, the second category, because they have earned it and they are going to enjoy it. Your goal will be to achieve permanence. In our long history we have had a sports structure with a team in each category so that the jump of players is more progressive, but mainly for economic reasons, we have not always been able to maintain it. Now we intend to have that structure and be more efficient and more possible a correct formation in the competition to get to the first team. We have always given opportunities to homegrown players in the first team, but the leap is really great and they have noticed it by not having previous experience in First National. Currently we have young people who are standing out a lot in Championships in Andalusia and Spain, such as Karen Martín, Alejandro Pérez, Álvaro Morán and Rubén Carreras. They are giving many joys and in a short term they will be opting to have a place in the Honor Division team.