This Sunday, May 22, the more than 1,200 football and futsal clubs in Catalonia will choose the candidate who will preside over the Catalan Football Federation the next four years. Four pre-candidates passed the guarantee cut: Joan Soteras, Alex Talavera, Juanjo Isern and Pep Palacios. SPORT today begins a series of interviews with the four applicants in order from least to most endorsements presented.
Today is the turn of Pep Palacios, a man who comes from the world of basketballsince he was a professional player and He became part of the FC Barcelona squad that, with Aíto García Reneses, won the ACB League and the Copa del Rey in the 1987-88 season.Y. In 2010, Palacios founded a football club that has experienced sensational growth, Club Atlètic Sant Just, of which he has been president since its foundation.
Why do you want to be president of the FCF?
I don’t want to be president for being president, what I want is to change it.
For that he presents…
As one of the 1,200 club presidents that Catalan football has.
What does the FCF require?
Come down from the cloud and step on the ground. The vast majority of clubs in Catalonia are small and are not taken into account. The FCF is a kind of LFP that only looks after the most important clubs.
And what does the FCF have to be?
An entity with a vocation for public sense, which truly solves the problems that clubs have. It has to stop being a business center,
What are the main lines of your program?
At an economic level, reduce salaries that are exorbitant and rationalize costs at market prices. On a sporting level, one important thing…
Say…
The Competition Plan has to be streamlined. Catalonia has more than 180,000 licenses and a single RFEF Third Division group that causes a great funnel. La Rioja has 8,130 licenses and has a group of Third. Andalusia, with fewer licenses than us, two. I think with that all is said.
And in youth football?
We will try that there is no supremacism. Avoid, if I may, that marketing with children who are youngest, fry…. Social football must be promoted, even from a romantic point of view.
Will it promote women’s football?
It is a train that goes at full speed and what we have to do is get on it. It is the success of many people who have crushed a lot of stone and now it is time to accompany them.
Its motto is ‘El canvi de debó’.
Two very defined blocs concur in these elections. One with people who have already been in the Federation or go with people who have been part of it… and us, who are ‘foc nou’.
Three against one?
Yes, we feel like David against Goliath. We are ‘little’, but we want to empower the rest of the presidents of small and medium-sized clubs, which are 90% of Catalan football.
By the way, will you have a salary as president?
If you dedicate yourself professionally to the position, I don’t see it as bad, but always limiting it to a reasonable amount, such as 60,000 euros. And not only that of the president, that of all the paid positions of the Federation.
What competitive model do you want to implement?
We like how it works in other communities and countries… that compete by year of birth and not by categories. In this way we will ensure that at some ages there is not so much difference on a physical level. Obviously we would agree with all of Catalan football.
Before I was talking about training football, avoiding marketing…
It cannot be that a ten-year-old boy has already played in four different teams or that he travels fifty kilometers to go to enter. Local football, stability, fidelity, the value of playing on your town’s team should be promoted. If a boy has great qualities and stands out a lot, higher-ranking clubs will come looking for him.
When I said that it feels like David against Goliath…
Yes, but we already feel like winners of these elections. The simple fact of being able to be here, even if it is competing with a Seat against a Formula 1 car, is already a victory for us. And that so many clubs have told us that they like our program fills us with pride.
Will you maintain the Federated Portal?
As president, Subies created different monopolies, such as the Federated Portal, the official ball, etc., which has only made everything more expensive for users. All of that will have to be reviewed.
What role do you have reserved for the world of futsal?
It is a complicated issue, because futsal would need its own autonomy due to the great growth it has experienced. If they, in consultation or referendum, wanted to become independent, we would have to respect it. There is no need to be afraid of decentralizing the Catalan Football Federation.