Mayer Candelo affirms that Cali’s enemies are in the club

Mayer Candelo’s dream of having a successful long-term project at Deportivo Cali barely lasted two and a half months. The team never raised its soccer performance, the bad results came date after date and it all ended with an unfortunate episode at the Doce de Octubre stadium in Tuluá with the invasion of ‘fans’ to rebuke the players and the coach.

The former technician of the Valle del Cauca club spoke for the first time after his departure, he did so with the journalist Jaime Dinas, (Dinas Sports) making his position clear on the crisis that the institution is experiencing. He points out that many things are moving under the table, both from managers and from people who are no longer here, but who have power. He asks for unity and hopes that with his departure everything will improve.

“They are doing damage to a wonderful institution that we have had with so much history, 112 years of history, and today because of egos and pride they are hurting him, it hurts me a lot, not from the fans but of the people who were in Tuluá and they entered a court to continue damaging the image of our institution, when the one who is hurting them is not me, but the same ones who sent them or made them do that, who have to think a little and know that above men and money, there is an institution called Deportivo Cali”, Candle said.

Candelo also clarified that he never had personal problems with Teófilo Gutiérrez and that it is a lie that he wanted to collect compensation for a year and a half. He said that the new vice president of Cali, Eduardo Calderón, never wanted him in office and did not face him the day he visited the administrative headquarters.

Damage to the institution from within: “Always from the heart and loyalty we came to want to contribute the best, unfortunately you find yourself with administrative problems, in the economic part and in the sports aspect in the results, but at no time did you expect that because of the opponents who did not want you to be the coach , there would not be that support after they have given you the position of coach. I expected that the results would be negative, that the economy was down, but that outside of sports and administration, work would be done below to harm an institution, not Mayer Candelo. They have never harmed me at any time, I am still the same and I will continue to love my institution”.

Enemies are everywhere: “There are some inside and some outside, they are everywhere, but I come back and say, any problem, if they thought it was me, Mayer is gone. I hope and want that, because of his ego and pride, that they did not choose the coach they wanted, they support the cause and the institution to get it out of the place where he is”.

Who are the ones doing harm? “It is from all parties, the so-called fans who are not fans, the former directors who are no longer there, others who continue, club workers. I’m not pointing fingers at anyone, but it’s a reality.”

Message to journalists: “To many journalists too, with great respect I tell them, not to harm their profession for a coin because Mayer is no longer here, so they are no longer going to eat what they were given, they are going to run out of what they received because It’s not Mayer.”

The invasion of the field in Tuluá

The Tuluá thing was planned: “It is that I had not arrived at the club and I was already resisted, I arrived and I was resisted, and I ended up being resisted because many people did not want me to go for their own benefits, because Cali gives benefits, so today we want an institution where we not only take advantage of of the personal but of the collective, where the winner is Cali”.

The message to the people who invaded Tuluá: “Especially with these crazy things that the so-called fans dressed in Cali did, that does not mean being a fan. It is seen that everything is manipulated, everything is agreed so that the image of the club continues to be damaged. We want that so-called fan who lent himself for that moment to know that he is not harming a person but rather an institution such as Deportivo Cali.”

There was no aggression to their players: “No, not really, neither my players nor I, where it would have been something natural, a so-called fan would have entered with a knife to stab someone, with a stone, a stick, a fist or a kick. If there is something I have to attest to, it is that no one was attacked, neither me nor my players. You can see how planned this was, what was studied so that the moment would come and they would believe that they were going to harm a person. They never hurt me, they made me feel disappointed and sad that we lent ourselves to continue staining the institution.”

There was nothing personal with Teo Gutiérrez: “If I have to attest, it is that here there were never any differences with any player, least of all with him. That I have to correct, demand, is different from there being differences. One when he takes a team is like the father of his children. At the time, if Teo had done inappropriate things, they corrected him, they said, they showed, but he was not attacked or vice versa. I don’t have to speak ill of a player for saving me. He never had differences with me. I handed him the keys to the equipment.”

It was false that there was compensation until December 2023: “The issue here was never about money, there has been media morbidity where people and journalists have been paid to divulge things that are not. To begin with, my contract was not made by me, until the day I left I came to know it. They put the compensation themselves, I did not put it because my interests were not money. I came because of what the club lives for, I have not said that I worked for free, that they did not pay me, but my property was never money or having a giant salary because I did not put it, the managers put it. They put the compensation, which was two months, my contract was not linked to a compensation of a year and a half as it was disclosed.

The board of directors was divided by his appointment

The time of his departure and the relationship with the directors: “The only thing he had was gratitude to Dr. Mena and his members, there were some who did not show their faces or hid when I went to the headquarters, who acted as if they had not seen me, like Mr. (Eduardo) Calderón, no I know why. He said it wasn’t personal but sports, but they weren’t even able to face you. He was one of those who did not agree with my arrival.

Eduardo Calderón (vice president) never agreed: “I saw him with Dr. Mena the other day when I went to see the general manager, and they always stand aside, as if they don’t see you, as if you don’t greet them.”

He left quietly from Cali: “I didn’t cry or feel bad, that’s why I didn’t even run the day the fans got in. I’m leaving with my head held high, I’m leaving happy because I didn’t steal, I didn’t kill anyone, I don’t have to cry or feel bad, I know that many of the things that happened were planned, paid for and so on. That gives me peace of mind.”

The enemies are in Cali itself: “Yes of course. It is that our enemies are not those from outside, it is not Millionaires, it is not America, they are right there in the house, those who have just stepped aside are still enemies, who say they love. We invite them to unite to support the cause, plus them who have the power to command from the outside and those from the inside so as not to hinder any more the good things that can be done”.