The company Fomento y Promoción del Real Jaén, whose visible face is the Olulense Ramón García together with his partner the footballers’ representative José Pablo Varela, has officially controlled since last Monday, with the unanimous support of all the shareholders who attended the general meeting, the destiny of this historic club of Andalusian football, which will be 100 years old in 2022.
The club was immersed in a delicate situation, as García confirmed in an interview with Reporters News, «in September when we took over the club, several salaries were owed to players and coaching staff. The pitch at La Victoria was left to the hand of God and we set about replanting it. The players, as a result of the same situation, had not had a pre-season and had been playing in the same competition. The team was unable to play the first matchday, so we started with less than three points, so our first efforts are aimed at getting out of the hole we are in,» says the Almeria businessman, aware of the challenge ahead.
Getting the pitch at the Estadio La Victoria into shape was one of the objectives when he arrived at the club, so that the Lizards could play their home games there. «We had to do a lot of work and Zona Verde Sport, a company based in Macael, gave us a big hand and I would like to thank them for that.
Fomento y Promoción del Real Jaén managed to acquire 63,000 shares, that is to say, 59 per cent of the shareholding package, and since September it has managed to re-establish relations with the administrations, with the local business community and with the fans themselves. «In September the club had 100 members. Today we are 1,300», says Ramón García, who recognises that «there is a lot of work ahead», but that «luckily people are responding».
García is not the only Almerian to have joined the club’s board of directors, where he is vice-president. The sporting director is José Antonio Presas «Puskas» and the managing director is the lawyer from Olula del Río, Juan Andrés López Mena.
The president of Real Jaén is Ildefonso Ruiz, who until recently was the president of the Football Federation of Jaén.
This Sunday the team travels to our province to play against Almería’s reserve team.
