THE REPORT “The Ponfe Super League would be going up to First”

In times of the Super League, with the great European and Spanish clubs severely punished by the pandemic and immersed in the desperate search for economic solutions that will allow them to survive, it draws powerfully attention a club that could well be the most genuine representative of empty football in empty Spain. The Ponferradina Sports Society. Yours is a case that deserves to appear on paper. Everything that arouses and surrounds him cries out for public recognition. From his seniority, -in June he will begin the acts of his centenary, to his privileged position as a full member of professional football. Without underestimating his current ranking, eighth, and his solvent financial situation.

A club from a city, Ponferrada, with 65,000 inhabitants and a region, El Bierzo, which has seen its population reduced in recent years to 125,000 residents. There, Ponferradina is ‘la Deportiva’ and Its president, José Fernández Nieto (Toral de los Vados, 1959) is simply Silvano, the family name. Fernando Roig de Segunda with 21 years of seniority in office, to which must be added two and a half years as vice president.

José Silvano is not one of those who lavish himself a lot in the media, not even in the locals. He flees from the self, he always speaks in the first person of the plural and it gives him a certain modesty to recognize that his management in these two decades has made Ponfe, the national nickname of Deportiva, an economically healthy club, with a surplus, properties … and an aspiration hidden: play one day in the First Division.

How do you land in the world of soccer?

By chance. He had been president of the club in my town, the Sociedad Deportiva Tabalense. He was then 25 years old. The president, whom I later replaced, Delfrido Pérez, called me. The Ponferradina was in Third. I didn't really want to, but they convinced me. You had to lend a hand in every way. We had a debt of 30 million pesetas, but with the help of the entire city, of businessmen in the area, of the City Council … we were moving forward and we have been able to reach what we are today. In January 2000 we made the leap to the presidency. We were already in Second B. All season in relegation and in the last game we were saved. From there we improved, growing and growing until in 2006 we were promoted to Second for the first time in the history of the club and since 2008 we are a Public Limited Company.

From the first day it was clear that the club had to be run as a company.

Very easy. There is income and expenses and we could never and can never spend more than we earned. With that tactic we understood that we were going to get ahead. We are sufferers. We have to fight to the last euro. Money does not come from the air. I like to add that in addition to being a company, we had to be a family business. This club is a family, big, but a family. Between players, technicians and employees we will have about 70 workers. All footballers are professionals. We also have a subsidiary in Preferential, which we want to go up to Third and in grassroots football we have two youth, two cadets, three youngsters, three children, three youngest and a soccer school for children between 4/5 years old to 7 , which have no record. We have agreed teams and a women's team that has its own board of directors, but it is our affiliate. We try that the players who have had a long career at the club and stay to live in the city can be relocated to the club.

The management structure is also professional.

It is that we are a professional club. We have a Board of Directors that I preside, a CEO who acts as CEO, Eduardo Domínguez; a sports director, two technical secretaries and a grassroots football director… Things either go well or they don't, but we have a solid structure. Our budget is eight million euros. And the salary cap is the lowest in the category, four million. Television revenue covers 80 percent of the budget. The rest are partners, advertising, sponsors, who contribute about 500,000 euros. The most important are Herrero Brigantina, Valcarce and Caja Rural.

His motto is sports risks, yes; economic risks, none.

That's how it is. We have been developing the model that the League implemented a few years ago with the salary cap, financial fair-play … Most of the years we have had a surplus and the club is growing economically every year. We have three and a half million of social capital, an 84,000-meter estate for a future Sports City and a 12,200-meter site in the center to build a Players Residence and the club's headquarters. The stadium belongs to the City Council that grants us the management and operation.

The pandemic has delayed all these plans …

We have advanced, but with caution because the economy required it. We have stopped entering more than one million euros and that our six thousand members took out all the season tickets at the beginning of the season. I don't think there is another case like this in Spain. We are looking for a formula to compensate them now that we already know that there will be no audience until the end. Our subscriptions are low, we have the prices of Second B, we gave them a good discount and they go from 40 euros for children to 270 for adults. Membership income accounts for five percent of the budget.

Do you know how much your players earn?

There is a minimum in the Second Division imposed by the League, which is 80,000 euros a year. And maybe whoever wins the most is for 225,000. We are La Deportiva. And if there is a player who charges a little more, it is because he is on loan and his home club also pays him a part of the contract.

The top of the club with that budget and those chips is almost necessarily the Second Division. It is very difficult to fight against clubs that triple the income.

I don't think it's all about money. Football has a component of luck, of setting up a good squad… It is not mathematics. We are the third lowest budget in the category and look where we are and where we have been. We are eighth and on Saturday the last one beat us. The year you least expect it, you form a cheap and good template and you get it. The Second is a magnificent category and we are delighted, but we do not give up anything. The dream of every athlete, including us, is to reach the First Division.

The seasons are very long for the team. They always go from more to less.

The Second is very long and very strong. You just have to see what it costs them to get up to the big budget clubs that go down from First. It is very difficult for the modest to maintain the level. I hope that from knocking on the door at least we will reach that promotion playoff that we have had to one point and one goal on two occasions, in 12-13 and 14-15, that we lacked a goal to play it. But we cannot underestimate where we are. If you drop out of Second, without television rights, it would be much more difficult to survive.

Do you consider yourself a football nut?

I always liked it, but crazy, crazy … not either. I have been 21 years old and I am happy. I've always been crazy about work.

When did you start out, did you have a president idealized by how he ran his club? Who do you want to look like when you grow up?

I did not have a president especially, but over time I have always looked at Fernando Roig's management at Villarreal. He is the one who has been in the First Division for the longest and we in the Second Division. I would like to look like Villarreal. Of course. It's a great mirror to look into, but I don't want to say it too high because we are light years away from them and you don't want it to be misunderstood. Always saving distances. They are in a European final and we are here fighting not to lose sight of the playoff, although it is already complicated. It is a family club, like us, that has gone little by little. He has done very well. In everything that we pay attention to, Villarreal will be good for us. I have a very good relationship with the Roig family.

How does the Super League look from Deportiva?

Uffff…. Our Super League would be to go up to First, but with what is falling to be in Second is a pride. How do I see it? Far away. It is a complicated subject. I prefer to be as we are. I understand that the great Spanish and European clubs study and push for their own thing and I would like them to achieve it, but as we are now, all together. In La Liga, the Second Division clubs are the majority, we could win all the votes, but I think we have to have solidarity with the greats as they have with us.

You are very Real Madrid …

Well … partner for more than 20 years.

Then you meet one of the requirements to run for president.

(Silence) Florentino is here, he is a good president.

The fields adjacent to the stadium, the Toralín, where all the youth teams play are called Vicente del Bosque. How did the idea come about?

Vicente was introduced to me by Leandro Crespo, another man from León, at the time of Lorenzo Sanz as president of Real Madrid and he opened the doors to me in a gentlemanly way. Since then we have forged a good friendship. But putting his name to our fields was not because of that friendship, but because of recognition of what he had achieved as a coach: being once the European and World Cup champion. For us it is an honor. It is the little tribute from Ponferrada.

La Ponferradina is the oldest club in Castilla y León.

Yes, on June 7 we will begin to celebrate our centenary.

How is the rivalry with the Cultural?

Okay, normal, it's more of a fan rivalry. There were moments of tension and itches. Between the clubs we respect each other. La Cultural is not our enemy. We don't look at her. We look at ourselves and we have enough. What is clear is that Deportiva has crossed the borders of the city and reaches the entire Bierzo region and even the province of León where we have more and more fans.

The Brazilian forward is, at 38 years and nine months, the great star and scorer of the team. Ponferradina also has its ‘phenomenon’. He is Yuri de Souza, Brazilian and he is 38 years and nine months old. If the numbers do not dance, he is the third oldest player in Segunda after Rubén Castro (Cartagena) and Diego López (Espanyol) who have already turned 39. He is also the captain and the great scorer of the team. This season he has 11 goals in 36 games played. An absolute reference in the club, where he arrived from Pontevedra in the 2009-10 season.

A search on his exploits on youtube is worth it. You can see real goals. Good Brazilian. Individual actions with unlikely auctions. With a telltale smile he shows his satisfaction. “Yes, I have to admit that there are some nice ones. I have always scored goals. My childhood idol, although we have not been so many years, was always “the phenomenon” Ronaldo Nazario (44). There is no other like him. I also noticed Romario, but not that much. I liked how he protected the ball, his speed with the ball controlled, his definition… I don't know him and I would like one day to be able to do it and take a picture with him. Our goalkeeper, Caro, is on loan from Valladolid and says that one day he will make my dream come true ”.

Yuri has a recipe for staying in shape around 39 years old. “I work a lot in training. I have a lot of dedication. I take care of myself. I eat a good diet. All of this is important to keep competing. It is a pride to play at my age in a Second team like Ponferradina. I enjoy soccer. I just got a contract, but I see myself to continue … if I get renewed. I still see myself on the field. I don't think of another life without the ball. I will think in due course what I want to be. There are possibilities to continue working at the club. It would be an honor”.

Companions and rivals call me old, but in a loving way

He recognizes that some opposite and also in his wardrobe some point to his age. “Yes, they call me old, but never disparagingly. They do it with love. Even the opposing defenders. La Ponfe is a family, as the president always says. After so many years they have a special affection for me and people on the street show it to me. I have even gotten used to the cold and that where I was born in Maceió, north of Brazil, in winter they do not drop below 22-23 degrees. Of course I've been in Europe for a long time. Before coming to Spain I lived in Porto. Also cold and rain ”.

Yuri also boasts of his experience in China. In the 2015-16 season, in the winter market, he signed for Quingdao Huanghai, second. “Even though I was short on time due to the circumstances that occurred, I do not regret the experience. It was worth it humanly and footballingly. I had a two-year contract, but I only kept one. They wanted to change foreigners and it was my turn. As soon as the president found out what was happening to me, he called me and opened the doors of my house again ”.