Categories: Football

Sevilla, before one of the hottest Shareholders’ Meetings in history

The Sevilla FC Sociedad Anónima Deportiva celebrates this Tuesday a controversial General Meeting of Shareholders in which the power of one of the most successful clubs in this century is at stake, with ten European and national titles (the jewel in the crown are the six Europa League) and 20 final disputed .

With the team of Lopetegui At one point from the leader and one less party, it is striking that the sports bonanza contrasts with the institutional situation, in which a fierce war has been unleashed that has led to the current situation, with demands from one side to the other and even a parent-child confrontation, with Jose Maria del Nido positioned against his own son, current vice president on the council of Castro and one of its supports.

On the one hand, the former president, the largest individual shareholder with more than 30% of the capital, and the alliance he has formed with the group ‘777 Partners’, the so-called Americans, who joined the club precisely from the hand of the other part, from José Castro, in an unusual race to buy shares, which with a nominal value of 60 euros, were paid more than 2,000. Behind, there was a juicy business with the integral sale of the club that in the end did not take place. The Americans, who have recently bought the Genoa Italian, they have slightly more than 7% (although they defend that they reach 10%) and are the ones that in August requested an Extraordinary Meeting to revoke all the positions of the council and appoint a new managing body. That is why it is celebrated in October and not in December, since the council, obliged to convene it two months after its request, made it coincide with the Ordinary.

In the other side, Jose castro, the current president, who replaced Del Nido when he had to leave the presidency to enter prison sentenced by the Minutas case (Marbella town hall), has the support of the families of two former presidents, the groups Carrión and Alés, in addition to the company ‘Sevillistas de Nervión’, which was formed in the nineties to expel Antena 3 from the capital stock and buy back its shares and from which it left Jose Maria del Nido. Small shareholders have also announced their support for this group, who have syndicated 5.3%, but have warned that they do not support either side ‘per se’, but that their battle is to expel the Americans.

Everything is also seasoned with a great judicialization of the Board, since the actions of Of The Nest They were the subject of a lawsuit whose sentence decreed precautionary measures by breaking a pact that the large shareholders signed in 2019. At the last Meeting, they could not vote with their shares and in this it is the great unknown. The Provincial Court lifted the sentence of the Commercial Judge and in theory they will be able to freely choose their vote, although nevertheless, it is expected that any legal trick

by part and by change the rules of the Board. Of The Nest He even asked a judge to preside over it, an extreme that was denied in court.

In the event that the former president can vote, the forces will be very even, although the two are winners with a wide advantage. In the background, a debt of 41.5 million euros that has been what has led, as he said, to Of The Nest to give “the turn of the helm”, in addition to a financial deterioration of 111 million in two years. Castro excuses himself in the Covid crisis to present these numbers and in which the council decided not to accept an offer from Chelsea for Koundé of 50 million. In addition, both candidates are planning the construction of a new stadium in the same place where the Sánchez Pizjuán is located or a deep remodeling of it.

The war, according to his own Of The Nest He has affirmed, he has only just begun, since he has warned that his arrival to the presidential chair “has no turning back” and if it is not now because he is not allowed to vote with his shares, he will challenge it and return “within three months”.