LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL FOR ELCHE CF

After months of uncertainty, a chink of light can now be seen at the end of the long, dark tunnel Elche Club de Fútbol has been staring down for month after month.

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Having resisted the pressure to step down as club president by means of bare-faced lies and obfuscation, José Sepulcre finally fell on his sword this week, before leaving the Martinez Valero stadium glum faced and without saying a word.

His resignation paves the way for long time protagonist, Valencian businessman Juan Anguix, to elect a new Board of Directors and take over the running of the deeply indebted club.

The announcement Sepulcre had just become ex-president was made by Elche mayoress Mercedes Alonso who attended the meeting of majority shareholder the Elche CF Foundation as representative of the city. For weeks now, Alonso had been trying to broker a deal between the recalcitrant Sepulcre and his nemesis, Anguix, even going as far as attending a meeting with the Spanish Professional Football League (LFP) to fight the club’s corner.

With results on the pitch appearing to got the way of the club and the possibility of dropping down a division to the Segunda A slowly receding, another ominous threat recently loomed large. An unpaid tax bill of five million euros is already overdue and must be settled immediately to avoid the LFP imposing an “administrative relegation” on the team. Once a new football club board has been elected, the first task of Juan Anguix will be to keep the promise he made to settle that bill immediately upon assuming office.

An additional three LFP actions against the club for outstanding transfer fees, unpaid wages of both former players and the present squad will then be the next troublesome issues to resolve for the incoming board. At the start of April the players and coaching staff refused to carry out any non-playing tasks in protest at non payment of their wages for the previous two months. With all this simmering away in the background it is, perhaps, remarkable that first team coach Fran Escribá has been able to motivate his team to produce the required results in their relegation fight.

Tomorrow, Wednesday, the 29th, at 22:00h, Elche take on fellow struggler’s Deportivo de La Coruña in a match both sides need to win. Three points from this, their second last home game of the season, will virtually guarantee them survival. After that it will then be down to club bosses to persuade the powers that be Elche CF has turned over a new leaf.

Filed under: http://www.theleader.info/article/47102/

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