Everyone saw it coming. The problem was how and when. The Gijón City Council took charge of this, putting an end to nineteen months of adventure to convert “Asturias 2030”, or simply El Molinón (the use of one or the other depends on the context or the colors), as the headquarters of the World Cup that they will organize. Spain, Portugal and Morocco. What Orlegi started as soon as he acquired Sporting in 2022 in an undoubted gesture of ambition, ended without being finished with crossed accusations between the municipal government – renewed in this process, starting with PSOE and ending with Foro and PP – and the owner of the red-and-white club . The Principality, the third pillar of the project, living the last chapter as a spectator. The trigger, the FIFA requirements, documents in which the City Council and the Mexican group disagree until the day they began to be put on the table to be signed. That’s how everything exploded, amidst an intense swell.
The cold signing of the protocol of intentions between the three main actors of “Asturias 2030” already portrayed the health of the candidacy just fourteen days before everything blew up in a meeting in El Molinón. The doubts of both parties were already difficult to conceal. There had been weeks of calls and emails exchanged that always ended without concrete answers, without certainties. It had even been difficult to find a day to bring together Adrián Barbón, Carmen Moriyón and Alejandro Irarragorri to put a photo and make official what had previously been approved in each of their respective offices. Sporting, as on other occasions, seemed the only one wanting to give it speed, but “scheduling problems” led to waiting longer than expected to stage an agreement demanded by the Spanish Federation. It practically did not commit to anything. The case of FIFA requirements was different. At least, in the eyes of the City Council. Everything multiplies there.
The City Council claims to have known the content of the FIFA requirements for the host cities after the signing of the protocol of intent, that is, as of February 8. In fact, it is argued that they wanted to wait for the derby dispute to transfer it to the rest of the municipal groups. Sporting, however, places the date on which the documentation was transferred almost a month earlier, with shipping record included. Specifically, on January 14. Whatever the case, it was raining. Gijón had already begun to sound from Madrid like a headquarters that was very much taken by force (much more so after the departure of Rubiales from the Federation) and among other things, Moriyón was not getting the bills, a feeling that also gave a glimpse of the Principality in the surroundings. political. Even after seeing how Orlegi’s project for El Molinón, the jewel and great key to being the headquarters, had gone from 300 to 150 million euros in just a few months. Project, by the way, that had been presented privately at the regional government headquarters last December. In the middle, designs that had included hypothetical urban developments to widespread discomfort. Speculation? Contests? PGO? Many questions. The constant was, from the beginning, that the one who set the pace was Orlegi. The dynamic, however, increasingly eroded the relationships between the club and administrations.
Going back to February. While Sporting tried to push forward to carry out the most immediate, the FIFA requirements, the Mayor responded with the need to make clear what each person was up to. Afterwards, she would see herself. Along the way, other important questions: How to respond to commercial contracts awarded until 2050? Who will be responsible for paying the lost profits in the reform of El Molinón? Everything in the air. In the conversations, Zaragoza as one of the examples: 150 million distributed equally between the regional government, the city council and the club. Alejandro Irarragorri then played with the words: “If there is headquarters, there is financing, and if there is financing, there is headquarters.” More ambiguity, it was interpreted. Internally, the red and white club then insisted that the times were not those now, that the month of March was left to finalize the financing, the margin offered from Hispaniola. Orlegi had already used the consulting firm KPMG to balance the numbers and look for investors, he had also turned to partners like Basagoiti – who met last December with a prominent politician in the Gijon town hall – and was waiting for a complete report from the University of Oviedo ( to which KPMG joined) to adjust numbers. Friday the 23rd, last day to sign requirements. And one day before, a meeting was called in El Molinón to try to unblock the situation.
Strain. A guest at the table, the Spanish Federation. The Principality, absent due to scheduling problems. Sporting, aware that it is a “match ball” to continue in the race for the World Cup. The City Council, with a feeling of being trapped. The previous conclusions of the economic impact report appear, scheduled in full for March. It is noted that it is unsigned. La Española assures that FIFA commitments are not binding until the venue is awarded. The Consistory refutes it with reports from legal advice and the General Secretariat. Jesús Martínez Salvador and Ángela Pumariega leave without answering whether there will be a signature or not. Carmen Moriyón is informed. Solomonic decision. And then, war of communications. From the “blank check with public money” with which the City Council defines the feeling of its relationship with Orlegi, to the denial of the Mexicans, remembering that financing “is a matter of three” and Aztec capital has contributed in the last two years to try to raise the city and even the region. Moriyón reserved the last word: “My way of being brave is not to gamble, nor speculate, nor squander the money of the people of Gijón.” Disappointment of each other. The consequence of trying to attract a World Cup to Asturias: a deep gap.
2024-02-25 03:00:59
#intrahistory #fourteen #days #World #Cup #problem
