The president of change

Jon Uriarte He arrives at Athletic endorsed by his idea of ​​transforming the club. The Biscayan businessman has taken two days off, but tomorrow, when he takes possession of his office in Ibaigane, the first thing he will do is carry out a detailed study of the club’s situation. “The most professional thing in these cases is to look, listen and learn and adjust the diagnosis with that. We have limited information, good but limited. We have to adjust our plan to the situation of Athletic and set up an action plan for the coming months, but we will not make a revolution”, he said in the early hours of Friday to Saturday after being proclaimed as the 33rd president in red and white history.

The promise of regeneration has been his great electoral asset. According to the results at the polls, the partners were tired of the usual projects that they represented to a greater or lesser extent Ricardo Barkala e Iñaki Arechabaletathe first for its political past and for being linked to names with a past in Ibaigane from the time of Far away and the second for being related to the media power represented by the Vocento group.

It seems clear that the owners of the club wanted something else, someone totally detached from the past, a plate with new faces, to regenerate the entity in search of a new impulse to continue for at least another 124 years in the leading group of state football.

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Uriarte and his work group has had moments of downturn. The Bilbao native even acknowledged at one point in the campaign that they were about to leave him, but they decided to continue and the bet has turned out well for them. The development of election day already indicated where the shots were going. The polls carried out by several Biscayan media outlets gave them the winners with a considerable advantage over their competitors, as was finally confirmed after twelve o’clock at night, when the Electoral Board made the results official. The Bilbao native obtained 10,979 votes, 46.71%, while Iñaki Arechabaleta was second with 7,927 (33.72%) and Ricardo Barkala it was in third position with 4,262 (18.13%). 213 partners voted blank and there were 125 null votes. There was no doubt. This time it did not happen like three and a half years ago, when Aitor Elizegi he was proclaimed president by 85 votes difference with respect to Uribe-Echevarria.

recovered

Uriarte He arrives at the presidency without the cornerstone of his project on green, the sports director, a figure who in his organization chart will have full powers in the first two teams, the men’s and women’s, and also in the Lezama quarry. The businessman chose for this position Carlos Avinabut he had to ‘cut’ the twelve-hour one for some homophobic, racist and sexist tweets published by the Mexican ten years ago.

Not even this hard blow, which seemed to jeopardize his entire project and the advantage he had achieved in the guarantees, could with the confidence that the partners had deposited in this candidacy from the outset. When everyone already took his victory for granted, some rumors arose that he could take on Oscar Perarnau for that position, the Catalan soccer director proposed by arechabaletabut Uriarte He denied this extreme in the press conference held in San Mamés. He also ruled out naming Ramon Plansthe highest sporting official of Barkala.

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Uriarte confirmed last Wednesday to Ernest Valverde as his coach, shared with Barkala, something that also benefited the final winner more than the president of the Port Authority of Bilbao. Sergio Navarro, with a past in Castellón, Rubin Kazan and Villarreal, among other teams, will be his director of Lezama, and Xabi Arrietasports director of Bizkerre for the last 15 years, will be in charge of the Women’s team, replacing Joseba Agirre con Iraia Iturregi as coach of the first team. La Loiu is the only one that has achieved the consensus of the three candidates. the board of Uriarte He also has to choose the people who will fill the roles of director of performance and the head of sport development and loans.