Acapulco, the paradise denied for professional soccer

by

Ricardo Magallán

They say that we all have a beautiful story to tell about Acapulco , but when we talk about soccer in the paradisiacal port we find it difficult to find one.

Acapulco seems to have everything to be fertile ground for professional soccer: tourism, hobby, strong businessmen, climate, infrastructure ... but no, football has not wanted to take root in these Guerrero lands.

Cradle of great legends of our football like Jorge Campos or Manuel Negrete , Acapulco has tried for decades to consolidate a professional team but all attempts, some more successful than others, yes, but they have been unsuccessful.

"No professional team has taken root in Acapulco due to the lack of a serious investment project in the medium and long term , coupled with the demands of managers of national clubs that, as you well know, require state governments for resources and there are too many shortcomings in a municipality like Acapulco, ”says Héctor Briseño, a journalist from Acapulco who has seen managers and projects parade over the years that do not end in anything to establish professional soccer in the port.

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The history

Intention has existed, no one can complain about that. There have been several attempts throughout history to have a professional team in Acapulco , all of which have the Sports Unit as a home, a small urgent soccer stadium.

If we had to pinpoint the origin of everything, we would go back to the 1960s, when the Las Brisas club first participated in the Third Division , which would open the door for Inter Acapulco a few years later to arrive to the Second Division.

Other attempts would continue in franchises such as the Dolphins and the Warriors, the latter, a team that the port's fans managed to take care of, precisely because it was made up entirely of footballers and managers born there.

"The team that truly left its mark were the Warriors , they went from Second B to Second A, all from Acapulco, except for two or three outsiders ... people loved that team very much," says Briseño.

Subsequently, Grupo Pegaso, owned by businessman Alejandro Burillo, would set its sights on Acapulco and lead a First A franchise that even went as far as to play a semifinal: Los Jaguares de Acapulco.

Soccer players such as Argentina's Federico Vilar and Colombia's Luis Gabriel Rey played in that team , and from there they made the leap to Atlante to consolidate their career in Mexican soccer. The Chilean Fabián Estay also defended this jacket and it was with this club that he withdrew from the courts.

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“We played on Fridays and the stadium was full. It was impressive because you saw in the street the huge lines of people who had been left outside, who wanted to enter the stadium. It was a complete success ”, remembers José Antonio García, who was the president of those Jaguars just in the years when the businessman was the main operator of the Güero Burillo in his soccer teams.

In the end, nothing would happen with those Jaguars either and more franchises would come with the same bad luck : from the Mantarrayas, in the Third Division, until the last attempt, the Cuatetes, who were disaffiliated by the Mexican Soccer Federation for not fulfilling their commitments economic.

"There is a common denominator: they are all outside businessmen who have come with different intentions , who have tried to put teams of Third, Second and Promotion and have not worked. Nor has there been enough money, the right scenario and the projects are not enough to come together, ”says journalist Héctor Briseño.

Phantom stadiums

"You should ask Burillo," Toño García replies with a laugh when I ask him what happened to the soccer stadium that Grupo Pegaso was going to build in Acapulco.

And it is that the project went far beyond the intention with a ceremony of laying the first stone, in the year 2000, where Burillo himself and the then governor of the state of Guerrero, René Juárez Cisneros were present.

The project presented at the time spoke of a first-world complex that would include a shopping center, restaurants, a concert hall and more.

“And there it was left without building, just the first stone and that's it . I think it was because Burillo had a fight with the former governor, over the boxes, but in reality it is not well known what happened, "explains Briseño.

Thus the construction dawned today. Congratulations to all of you for your daily effort. #ConstruyendoHistorias pic.twitter.com/j8gtQNFW

A decade later, the businessman Mohamed Morales, famous for his football scandals and his romances with celebrities, presented a new project called "New Acapulco Stadium" for the construction of a property in the Punta Diamante area.

Like the Burillo project, this stadium promised to be one of the best on the continent with a shopping center, aquarium, hotel, cinemas, concert halls and more.

The works began, glued to the sea, and a survey was even launched on social networks to baptize the team that would come to play in that stadium.

In 2018, the journalist Anibal Santiago documented, for Excelsior, how the New Acapulco Stadium was in the middle of construction and, since years ago, the land had been occupied by guerrilla self-defense groups.

Great photo of @EstadioAcapulco pic.twitter.com/jaLdpXoDSy

Again, Acapulco ran out of a soccer stadium.

"Of course Acapulco is an excellent place, very soccer, it would have all the success in the world . But sometimes everything goes beyond intentions, to want to have a team, that is not enough, you have to invest, but that Acapulco is an excellent place, it is, "says José Antonio García.

The new attempt

"Energy, renewal, transcendence. Visualizing a future full of glories, identify with our personality ”, is the call that Acapulco FC makes on its social networks to the fans, accompanied by some HTs like #ReinventingANewEra #AcapulcoEsDePrimera.

Acapulco FC is the franchise announced by the Mexican Football League (LBM) to be part of what will be its first tournament, which starts, if the pandemic allows it, on September 18.

With all attempts to establish an FMF affiliated team exhausted, this opportunity for professional football in Acapulco comes at the hands of the country's new soccer league.

Acapulco FC is owned by Mauricio Ruiz , who was an employee of the FMF and, later, people from Grupo Pegaso.

Ruiz was even president of Irapuato, before the franchise was absorbed by the FMF when it was detected that the club was being used to launder drug money.

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Raúl Aguirre

The LBM team already has a technician: the experienced Juan Antonio Luna , who for months now has been carrying out visions in the port to detect talent and integrate it into the workforce.

"We know that there is a lot of talent here in Acapulco and we want to capture it to give it the opportunity with the support of the state and municipal government," said Mauricio Ruiz a couple of months ago during an interview with a local media outlet.

As part of the Acapulco FC board is also the former Atlante footballer, Andrés Ugalde.

This team will play, like all the others, in the Acapulco Sports Unit , a building with a capacity of more than 10,000 people that has grown old over the years.

Will Acapulco FC be the team that finally manages to take root in the port? It is not known, we will have to wait, but while Héctor Briseño makes a forceful appointment in one of his reports published just a few days ago: “Every attempt to establish a football team that represents the port of Acapulco in major leagues, has succumbed as the galleons that lie at the bottom of the ocean ”.