“If you are in football, you must be in Spain”

The Mexican Jeff LuhnowAmerican group businessman Blue Crow Sportdeclared this Thursday that they face with “responsibility” the acquisition of the Leganes and said that they arrive “to add and not change” the club’s philosophy.

The Moreno Pavón family acquired the club on December 24, 2008 in a delicate economic situation, when it was in Segunda B. From that moment on, it experienced growth that even led it to experience a stage in the highest category of Spanish football. .

Thirteen and a half years later, Felipe Moreno and Víctor Pavón have sold 92.6% of the shares to Blue Crow Sport, run by Mexican businessman Jeff Luhnow, who becomes the owner of the Madrid club.

“I recognize the responsibility that the group is going to take. We celebrate the club’s 94th anniversary and we take this new stage seriously. I represent a very serious group of people who are in love with the sport. What we want in Leganés is to make it grow and continue what Felipe Moreno and Victoria Pavón (previous owners) have done in the last fourteen years,” said Luhnow, at the presentation conference in which the change of ownership was announced.

“The reason why we are in sports is because in a job we like to win. I am not going to promise that we will win in two years, but we will make a great effort to continue and improve everything that the club is. I have a lot of confidence in the people who are here and in the working group that we have with executives from numerous sports,” he confessed.

“We are not here to change, but to add. The memories that have existed in the last 94 years are important, but the memories that we are going to create in the future are even more important,” said the Mexican businessman, who revealed that the process of searching for a team European to buy started two years ago.

“We visit several countries, several markets, and Spain is the one with the most future growth due to the changes in investment by CVC and the economic limit that exists. Spain is the center of soccer in the whole world. It has the best teams in the world and if you are in football, you must be in Spain. Within that, Leganés was the best combination of everything we were looking for with the potential to grow because of the people, the municipality, the stadium, the sports city, the connection with the rest of Spain and the proximity to Madrid. and airports,” he said.

For Jeff Luhnow and the group he represents “success is not short-term.” “If you plan in the short term you will hurt yourself in the long run and we are not going to sacrifice the future. We try to go out and win every season because the goal is always to win where you are. We know that to be successful in the long term you must have a productive youth academy. We will never have the resources of the greats of Spain but we must compete by being agile, smart, working harder and having access to players that the rest do not have,” he said.

“Also implementing a development system that possibly gives us an advantage. We will use a lot of technology and have an attitude that can help assess opportunities. What we want in order to compete is to create advantages in many areas. We are willing to invest in the necessary resources to progress.” , he highlighted.

Women’s football, a priority

Regarding the squad for next season, which will be led by Imanol Idiakez, he declared that they are going to “invest what is needed”. “In La Liga there are limits and you have to consider those factors. We have resources to invest in the sporting side, infrastructure and another part of this organization. We have spent time developing plans for what is to come and if we are going to invest it is because we need certainty. that we will be a long time”, confessed.

“Women’s soccer is going to be a priority for us, in the United States we have been quite successful and we want to take advantage of the fact that it is growing a lot,” said Luhnow, who took the opportunity to “thank” the work of the previous owners. “This club belongs to the fans and what Victoria Pavón and Felipe Moreno have done to take care of it and improve it over the last 14 years, we want it to continue. Hopefully when we leave we can be proud of them”, he concluded.

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