Daniel Avellaneda
08/27/2020 - 12:38
- Clarín.com
- sports
Elche is a town with more than 230,000 inhabitants and is part of Alicante. And also, the team that bears the name of the city. He was born 98 years ago as a result of the union of a group of Elche clubs. The story was written on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, but in one of its happiest moments it has the Argentine stamp. On Sunday they beat Girona, whose largest shareholder is Pere Guardiola, Pep's brother, and was promoted to First after five years of frustrations in the promotion. The goal was made by Pere Milla, with a header, in the additional sixth minute. However, there was a businessman raised in Flores who was fundamental to sustaining the franjiverde dream .
Christian Bragarnik is one of the most important businessmen in Argentine football. He wanted to be a footballer for Vélez, but he didn't get past JJ Urquiza and Yupanqui. He had a video store, edited a VHS of Mariano Monrroy from Arsenal and launched himself into the arena of representatives in 2001. Today, on the way to another economic and social crisis in the country, he manages hundreds of players, dozens of coaches and is successful in a market frowned upon in these lands : the Sports Limited Companies (SAD).
Legal and sports advisor for Tijuana de México, partner of Ricardo Pini –ex-husband of Laura Franco, alias Panam- in Unión La Calera de Chile and at the head of the Defense and Justice sports project, says that “all the money I won in my life ” to buy Elche FC. He did so in August of last year, but the shares were only transferred to him in November. It forms a consortium in which Pini, Jorge Alberto Hank, owner of Xolos, and two players he represents also participate: Darío Benedetto and Gustavo Bou.
At your office in Puerto Madero. Bragarnik is a sports advisor for Tijuana and Defensa y Justicia. It has shares in Unión La Calera de Chile.
Yes, the Pipe and the Panther saw a possibility and invested. "They asked me: 'How much can we get in?' and they joined ”, he says. In total, Bragarnik agreed to pay 30 million euros to be paid in 8 years to take over Elche FC. “I have been evaluating a possibility like this for years. I had two or three talks with various clubs, but it never came to fruition. He was in Europe because he had traveled to France for Benedetto's pass to Olympique de Marseille. So, they called me, I changed the ticket I had for Buenos Aires and I took a train to Alicante ”, the 49-year-old businessman tells Clarín .
"I knew the city and the stadium because I had brought Lucas Valdemarín in 2005. I did not expect to have this success in such a short term," admits Bragarnik, who for now does not have Argentine players on the squad. It brought in Brazilian Jonathas (free after passing through Hannover in Germany), Josema (Extremadura), Víctor (Sounders FC in MLS) and Escriche (Huesca) and the team paid off with the fifth lowest budget in the category.
Under the command of José Rojo Martín, the coach who raised him from Second B to Second Division and now to La Liga, he got the place for the playoffs on the last date of the tournament. There were 42 games in which he added 61 points, 29 as a visitor. Elche left Zaragoza, no less, and Girona on the way to move up.
Crazy party. The players lift Pacheta into the air. Bragarnik (left in photo) seeks a hug.
Pacheta , as they know Rojo Martín,He did not renew his contract because Bragarnik will give a boost to another Argentine: Jorge Almirón is the new coach.
“We compete against teams that are benched by sheikhs, such as Málaga or Almería, and Girona and Huesca, which fell but had a larger budget thanks to the parasure, which is an insurance that La Liga gives to relegated clubs. In addition, there is a salary limit and Elche came from a contest. We are class C, we could not exceed 35% ”, explains Bragarnik.
Now, in the First Division, he will compete with Real Madrid and Barcelona, but will collect 50 million euros from TV. He's already working on the reinforcements. One of them will be Leandro Fernández, former Vélez e Independiente, also represented by the Argentine businessman. Elche FC will start playing on the third date.
📯 𝗢𝗙𝗜𝗖𝗜𝗔𝗟 |
Pacheta and #ElcheCF separate their paths after a glorious cycle
💚 Eternally grateful 🤍
▶ ️ https://t.co/8Evdc03CFp#ThanksPacheta pic.twitter.com/05G4te7cjb
Bragarnik is the face of triumph in a field that did not go well for Marcelo Tinelli in Badajoz (1998) and Daniel Grinbank in Leganés (2004), men of the media. “There is a lot of talk here about the subject, but they came as investors, but they were not 100% dedicated to the club. And if you don't get fully involved, it's very difficult. I hope that this little star that I hang on will serve to open the doors to other Argentines like Diego did in the eighties or Messi, who consolidated himself here, ”he says.
Antonio Caselli, candidate for president of River and currently at Burgos FC, and Hugo Issa, player agent and owner of Lorca Deportiva, recently promoted to Second B, are on the same page.
Is there a future for SAD in Argentina?
Although Mauricio Macri tried to impose this scheme that works in Europe during his presidency, in the country there is no room for the irruption of investors. Much less with Alberto Fernández. “Clubs belong to members” is much more than a slogan. River, San Lorenzo and Racing, to name three emblematic cases, added in their statutes that there is no possibility of the insertion of private companies. The figure of management, on the other hand, appears in some teams, such is the case of Defense and Justice at the hands of Bragarnik.
“I always said that in Argentina I never had that intention. Here it has already settled, you are the owner or not, the decisions are similar, but you do not do what you want, one of the protagonists is the fan. It is the same as in a Civil Association. If there were a project and people with training, long-term success would be possible, ”says the businessman.
And he adds: “The problem is that a president wins the elections and is there for three years. In the first, he has to accommodate the financial problems, in the second he starts to go well and in the third, when he has learned to manage, if the ball does not enter a new one comes. This goes beyond a Civil Association or a SAD. Look what happens in Racing. Víctor Blanco has been around for many years and when it comes to negotiating he is very hard, he takes care of the interests of his club like no one else. That is a project. He is showing great management, the exercise of learning so many tricks, those of the representatives, the players, the press. You have to train ”.
So far, the only businessman who claims a place for private capital in football is Juan Cruz Oller. Like Bragarnik, he owns a shareholder package managed by Greece's Asteras Tripolis and is about to join a Serie B club in Italy.
“Argentine football is going through a situation of extreme weakness. All clubs, including the largest, have severe financial and economic problems. In Argentina there is no concept of surplus, everyone loses money. We have to do the same as other countries did that managed to professionalize their structures and for sport to take a leap in quality, as happens in the big leagues, in the Premier or in the Bundesliga. It cannot be that the clubs depend neither on the State nor on the power of the day in the AFA ”, Oller told Clarín .
The football sheiks
On Sunday, as the Champions League medals were handed out to the players and the Bayern Munich champions licking their lips to lift the Cup, there was a man in a suit, mixed-race complexion and a circumspect face. He was standing next to Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, a former German footballer and CEO of the Bavarian club. It was Nasser Al-Khelaifi, owner of PSG. With a tennis background, he heads the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) group. In 2011, he invested 70 million dollars to buy the Parisian club. A change if you take into account that his fortune is valued at 16 billion US currency.
Mansour bin Zayed Al-Nahyan arrived before the Qatari to football. At the head of the Abu Dhabi United Group for Development and Investment, this sheikh bought Manchester City with 250 million dollars. And from England it spread like an octopus to the world. It has franchises in MLS (New York City FC), India (Mumbai City FC), China (Sichuan Jiuniu FC), Australia (Melbourne City FC), Japan (Yokohama Marinos), Uruguay (Torque City FC) and Spain (Girona FC). , who lost the final with Elche).
Turki Al-Sheikh is a Saudi tycoon who bought 96% of the shares of Almería from Spain in exchange for 20 million euros. He owned Pyramid FC, a team led by Ramón Díaz and who transferred Emirati investor Salem Saeed to Shamsi. An Argentine accompanies him in sun and shade: Darío Hernán Drudi.
Málaga FC's main shareholder is Abdullah ben Nasser Al Thani. He arrived in Spain in 2010 and his emergence was extraordinary at the beginning of the adventure. He finished fourth in the League, qualified for the Champions League and reinforcements such as Cazorla, Isco, Van Nistelrooy, Joaquín and Baptista arrived. In the following championship he ranked sixth and entered the Europa League. Due to his debts, he could not play it and was excluded from the competition. With a liability of 100 million euros, he ended up in the Second Division. After this tournament, which led to the rise of Elche, the reduction of its squad and the dismissal of ten players was announced, including Esteban Rolón, former Argentinos Juniors midfielder.
Not all that glitters is gold, of course, beyond the petrodollars.
MFV