A decade of Betis 'free'

“And they can't beat him, and they can't beat him,” they sang to Rafael Gordillo Vázquez that night of December 13, 2010 after making him president of Betis. The mythical left-back came out in the air after a Shareholders' Meeting in which, promoted by the courts, the Verdiblanco club put an end to the reign of several lustrums of Manuel Ruiz de Lopera and several months of the Navarrese businessman Luis Oliver, to whom the majority shareholder had transferred from Jabugo street.

That Betis who was called 'free', judicially administered and with a debt that led him to join the Bankruptcy Law, has already ended with most of his lawsuits but not much less with his sporting or financial problems. In just a decade has had five presidents, nine changes of coach, seven top sports officials and endless changes in the rest of its areas.

This Betis fell in 2014 with one of the worst scores in its history (25 points) and has only played twice in Europe, one as seventh classified (2013) and another as sixth, the best position he has achieved in the table during all these years, in 2018. A promotion in the 14-15 and those two continental participations, in addition to experiencing the Copa del Rey semifinals in 2019, they are the only moments of some brilliance that Heliopolis has had in the last five years.

Now immersed in a deep currency crisis that has brought the pandemic to light, Betis is facing an assault on current power in the coming days represented by President Ángel Haro and Vice President López Catalán. Lorenzo Serra Ferrer, legend of the verdiblanco bench who was sports director from 2017 to 2019 and left the club through the back door, leads a candidacy to try to replace the current government in the Shareholders' Meeting on December 21. Everything indicates that the current rectors have the upper hand, but the decade ends and Betis continues without leaving mediocrity. It seems like a century ago that night of illusion with Rafael Gordillo at the helm.