Sporting Cristal made official the sale of 100% of its shares to the sports management group Innova Sports, which will take effect on Thursday, September 19. The presentation to the media was held at the headquarters of the institution in La Florida, Rímac.
At the meeting were María Julia Sáenz, the new vice president of the board of Sporting Cristal, Joel Raffo, founding partner of Innova Sports, and Enrique de la Piedra, general manager of the aforementioned company. The event was also attended by players Jorge Cazulo and Carlos Lobatón, and coach Manuel Barreto.
"I am pleased to return to what was once my home, Sporting Cristal, where 20 years ago I was lucky to be part of the youth teams and where I was coached by the great Alberto Gallardo. Today I am here on behalf of the group I preside over, Innova Sports, to make myself available to an institution with a tremendous tradition like Sporting Cristal," said Joel Raffo.
Among one of the topics that generated the most interest among the fans, -the name- the executive confirmed that it will not be changed. "We are not here to make structural changes, nor drastic changes, we come to continue with a philosophy, an identity of many years. Our main goal is to position Sporting Cristal as a regional club model, we will not change the name, we come to put all our experience at the disposal of this project," he added.
On the other hand, Joel Raffo clarified that there is no conflict of interest with the presence of Carlos Gonzalez in the management group. It is worth mentioning that the former referee heads the football representation agency (AGREF).
"There is no conflict of interest, since we have managed our company as a business group which has marked divisions, each of them autonomous and independent, led by different professionals and above that, we will continue with good corporate governance and strengthen it, so that there is no conflict of interest on any side," he commented.
Likewise, the executive emphasized that the objective will be to turn Sporting Cristal into a regional model. "We just found out a few hours ago that we were chosen to lead this tremendous institution and we are going to start working, that's what we offer to the fans and the country. We will seek to position Cristal as a model institution at the regional level," he said.
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