“Athletic needs this budget to be approved”

Athletic is approaching the Extraordinary Assembly on November 30. The meeting of compromise partners, which this time will be held at the Euskalduna Palace, has a single point on the agenda, the approval of the 2021-22 budget, which was rejected in the conclave on October 23 by 402 votes in favor and 478 against.

The directive led by Aitor Elizegi pass a second exam. Jon Ander de las Fuentes, Board accountant, and the club’s general manager, Jon Berasategi, have explained today the changes carried out in the new accounts. Expenditure will now be 140,383,846 euros and income, 135,913,327 euros, with a deficit of 4.4 million that coincides with the losses of the season due to the pandemic. The Covid quota goes from 120 euros to 85 because there is one more game to count in 2021, that of Real Madrid on December 22, which has been advanced due to the dispute in January of the Super Cup in Saudi Arabia, and because the quotas Unlike the previous budget, they are not capped at a maximum of 100%.

“With this budget we are going to leave a club perfectly prepared in sports, with solvency and financial capacity”

Jon Ander de las FuentesAthletic Board of Directors Accountant

Despite this, “there will be some partners who pay more others, but they will balance each other.” A third of the social mass will have to pay more for the quota. In addition, the Board has calculated one million more income from ticket sales with the 100% capacity of San Mamés, as it is currently, and if the evolution of the pandemic does not say otherwise in the future.

“Athletic needs the approval of this budget to have stability and certainty. It is the best we have been able to do for this season, out of the crisis. We need to make this extraordinary effort, ”he said. From the Sources, which like its president, has confirmed that he will not run again in the elections to be held in June next year.

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“We are confident that it is the best possible budget. We have three exercises in the red. Nobody likes to see this. We want to take a step forward. We have to lay the foundations and sufficient elements so that whoever is going to manage this club does so with all the certainty in the world ”, added the head of the accounts.

From the Sources He has affirmed with these accounts “we are going to be stronger and more sustainable”. In this sense, he wanted to make it clear that the deficit is temporary, not structural. “It saddened me to hear about Athletic’s structural deficit. Let other companies go see. We go through cycles, some more positive and some less. You learn from everything ”, he stated.

“We give up the witness with nothing to fear for whoever comes”

From the Sources has established the objectives of the club: “To reinforce the obtaining of income, to recover the sporting level that allows us to play for Europe, to renew the squad that had been weakened by the big European clubs (due to the departure of important players after payment of the clause of rescission), balance expenses with incomes that are not expected, the plan for Lezama, reinforce our institutional weight and improve our management capacity in a very restrictive environment such as the Sports Law ”.

“We propose extraordinary measures. We have never stopped looking to the future with hope ”, added the accountant. He then launched a message of optimism for the new Board that will lead the entity as of June. “With this budget we are going to leave a club perfectly prepared in sports, with solvency and financial capacity. For that we need the confidence of the social mass. We give up the witness with nothing to fear for whoever comes. We hope to leave a more exciting and hopeful future ”, he said.

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