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Fernando Roig (Valencia, 1947) has been happy in 2021. Very happy. Villarreal, his Villarreal, was proclaimed champion of the Europa League. 24 years after buying the club, Roig won his first title. Vila-real thus became the smallest town with a European champion team. Its 50,000 inhabitants, “the residents of Pau”, enjoyed a final that, vagaries of life, Roig, the culprit of the success, had to see on television for having tested positive for coronavirus a few days before.
(The interview takes place at the El Ceramista restaurant, in the bowels of La Cerámica and overlooking the lawn) What was where we are now 24 years ago, when you bought Villarreal?
Here? A bleacher with aluminosis and four rows of concrete seats. This fund was the first one we loaded. In this club we have put a lot of enthusiasm and investment. There is no more secret than work, a lot of work.
In the preview of the final, José Manuel Llaneza told AS: “Villarreal got the Gordo and the Primitiva with Roig.” What did you get with Villarreal?
This club has given me the opportunity to do work for the society in which I have my companies. I had experience in sports, in basketball in Valencia. I liked the idea that Llaneza proposed to me. I’ve always said that Llaneza signed me, and I’m very glad I said yes.
What is being a champion?
Well, it is the achievement of a job for a long time. You remember the Arsenal penalty, the Valencia semi-final … Being champion is something very difficult. Only seven Spanish teams have a European title and Villarreal is one … imagine what pride.
“Pau is the symbol of the player of the people, the symbol of Villarreal”
How many times have you seen the stop from Rulli to De Gea?
So many. On the screens of the restaurant it is broadcast every two by three. I do not get tired of seeing her. But the important thing was to live it the first time, which is the good one, even if I had to see it on TV and not in the stadium because of COVID.
What a chore.
Things that happen. Although I had already tested negative, they told me that I could not access the stadium. I understood that everyone’s health came first. I took the plane and went back to Spain. My wife filled the hall with Villarreal flags and that’s how I watched the final.
And the penalty shootout?
With a certain tranquility.
I do not believe you.
Yes. He was calm by how the game had passed. We had managed to fight face to face against a team with a bigger budget, we even scored first; we got to extra time, to penalties, which are a lottery. I have never seen so many penalties! But as we always scored first, I saw their penalties in the hope that they would miss… and on the 22 penalty Rulli stopped her.
Trigueros made a video call to him from the grass and Pau gave him his medal, do you feel like their father?
No. I am the president of a club that bets on the quarry, that wants the kids to become good professionals. Sometimes I give them some advice, but they don’t pay attention to me. They know that Villarreal will always be by their side.
Emery left a phrase that sums up what happened in Gdansk: “We played for the town of Pau”.
What about Pau is very rare to find: a child from a town of 50,000 inhabitants becomes European and international champion for Spain without playing for a club other than that of his town. Pau is the symbol of the people’s player, the symbol of Villarreal.
The bet on Emery was precisely for this.
People perhaps did not understand the change from Unai to Calleja, which we had recovered and with which the team finished the League well. But we understood that we had to change to another type of coach. That decision was made and it turned out well. Unai is very connected and happy at Villarreal. The first year he won the Europa League, now we will go to Bergamo to continue in the Champions League and I hope we will redirect the situation in the League.
That a bottom of the Premier (Newcastle) was thrown in the middle of the course to by the technician of a Champions League team, is it a warning to Spanish football?
Well, they are situations that can occur. There are new investors in football and they want to do their projects quickly … but football for me is not a business. Soccer is a feeling. We are managers of Villarreal, but the owners are its 50,000 supporters.
“Soccer is a feeling and the owners are the fans”
You are the managers and also the owners.
The owners of the shares do. But the fans are of the feeling. The duty as a manager is to take care of them, because football is that, feeling.
When you are proclaimed champion, can you lose your perspective in management, get carried away by euphoria?
Well, you have to know how to accelerate and also brake. You have to be careful, know how to sell footballers how much you play and save the money for when bad things come to you. You have to work hard on the base and have a good financial balance
Can a club that aspires to win be sustainable?
Villarreal is. At the time we made a lot of investment and now we have balanced income with expenses. In a year you can go, but in cycles of four or five we are sustainable.
What does the agreement with CVC tell you?
It seems good to me and it is good because of the union of almost all the clubs. Each team individually is worth nothing. After signing, television revenues will be, at a minimum, those of the previous season or higher. The only thing they force you to do is tell them what you are going to invest that money in, which has to be to improve infrastructure.
What will they invest it in?
In improving evacuations, we are going to buy houses that are attached to the stadium to improve accessibility, in infrastructures in schools that we have abroad… All this will give added value to the clubs and the League. What CVC is going to make money? Of course, it is not an NGO. It is a fund that comes to win, but with that money we will make the League stronger and stronger.
The last. After winning the Europa League, what?
Consolidate ourselves, which is no small thing, and never forget that while there are three teams that go down, the first objective is to be away from those positions.