Manuel Ruiz de Lopera, eccentric ex-president of Betis, was the first to agree. And that Oviedo owed him 3 million euros from Oli’s return. Behind Lopera signed the rest of the creditors. In 2004, the agreement achieved that all those to whom Oviedo owed money renounced collecting their debts in exchange for a percentage of transfers over the blue footballers in the following 20 years. The agreement saved the club from disappearance in exchange for conditioning its long-term sales policy. In its final period of validity, 16 months after its expiration, LA NUEVA ESPAÑA unravels the keys of a creditors’ agreement that admits some nuances in its application.
The first key point is the one that points to its term of validity: until when does Oviedo have its sales conditioned? The agreement establishes that the term “during which a percentage of the income obtained by transferring its players is transferred to creditors is established at 20 years” and introduces a condition that has not been met: “It will be reduced, understanding fully fulfilled if the team plays for 15 years alternatively or consecutively in the First Division”.
Therefore, it establishes its validity in 20 years “considering as the first year the one corresponding to the current soccer season 2003-04”. In other words, the 20th season, the last one to be applied, is 2022-23, the next one. Or what is the same: Oviedo will be free to render accounts to its creditors as of July 1, 2023, within 16 months.
The agreement establishes that “the percentage to be paid to the creditors will be calculated at the end of each season, based on the total amount of income obtained during the same by the transfers made”. Thus, three sections are established. If the sale is between one euro and 3 million, Oviedo will give the creditors 50 percent. If it is between 3,000,001 euros and 6 million, 30%. If the player leaves 6,000,001 euros onwards, 20%. The document adds that the amount “will be distributed among all creditors, annually, in proportion to their credits.”
Oviedo has not completed a major transfer since the late 1990s: the 7.4 million that the Blues received from the sale of César to Deportivo in 1999. This season, the club has been close to generating a sale. Borja Bastón received in January the interest of several teams and two offers of weight on his table. One, millionaire, from a Dubai team. Another, from Cádiz to play in the First Division. He rejected both. The striker’s affordable clause, 1.5 million euros, makes him a coveted piece.
In accordance with the conditions signed in 2004, if any club pays the Bastón clause before July 1, 2023, Oviedo would be entitled to 750,000 euros, the same amount that would be distributed among its creditors.
“It would be necessary to clarify whether or not the payment of a clause is a transfer according to what is established in the agreement. I have doubts. When Oviedo received money for Michu’s training rights, Mata or Cazorla kept the total”
Although the nature of the operation, the payment of the clause, raises doubts. Manolo Lafuente, president of Oviedo at the time of the signing, is not so clear that Oviedo would have to give up half of the amount of that hypothetical Bastón departure. “It would be necessary to clarify whether or not the payment of a clause is a transfer according to what is established in the agreement. I have doubts”, assures Lafuente, who gives an example: “When Oviedo received money for the training rights of Michu, Mata or Cazorla, they kept the total”. In any case, the former blue president maintains that it should be the creditors who request the collection, that this does not occur automatically.
There is another important element contained in the document signed in 2004, the creation of a “monitoring commission” made up of five members. Here one of the most curious circumstances occurs, since one of the members of this body is Toni Fidalgo, attached to the Professional Football League at the time and who was later president of Oviedo on two occasions. Along with Avilesino, a representative from Betis, another from Oviedo, the notary José María Moutas (already deceased) and the judicial controller Celestino Suárez were appointed in 2004 to form part of the commission. The substitutes, both creditors, are also summoned, in case one resigns from the position: the creditor Coral Golf and the Uruguayan Fénix Athletic Club.
The commission would have, according to what was written, several tasks: supervise the payment to creditors, ratify transfers and even force Oviedo to make sales “that the commission itself considers up to a maximum of three players per season”, in addition to regulating its operation intern and fill vacancies. However, the commission, key to the operation of the agreement, has never met.
