For more than two hours, José María Muñoz, judicial administrator of Málaga CF, together with Kike Pérez, general manager, appeared before the media in the 'Juan Cortés' Press Room at La Rosaleda.
Breaking down the press conference, one of the topics addressed the Club’s current situation following relegation to the Primera Federación last weekend.
Firstly, José María Muñoz apologised to the Malaguista fans: “I apologise, as I am the one in charge at the Club and, therefore, the responsibility is mine for everything that has happened; this relegation is upsetting and painful.” He then explained that the principal reason has been the sports planning, which he described as “a disaster,” because “the players, in whom there was so much confidence, have not lived up to what we all expected” as well as the fact that “the information to make the correct decisions at the times they should have been made wasn’t there.”
Kike Pérez then stepped forward stating that “forgiveness is words, now is the time for actions and to express appreciation for the support in Málaga and away from home, an example for all of Spain.”
“Things haven’t been done well. We are the first to be self-critical, internally, and we need to see what has failed within the departments. We’ve all failed, everything has failed,” he added.
Málaga CF’s general manager, after almost four months in the role, has “detected the failures or deficiencies within the Club.” For him, “the first is that there was no sports plan, there were major flaws, and the first thing Málaga must have is a sports plan.”
Kike Pérez’s job is helping to resolve the mistakes, to such an extent that José María confessed that “within my own decisions, I should have named Kike much earlier, that’s been my main mistake.”
Málaga CF’s judicial administrator stated that he is “the one who bears the most responsibility in all of this, personally and financially,” arguing that “in September 2020 the players didn’t want to come to Málaga, because they thought they were not going to be signed up, and there were indemnity clauses in the contracts if they weren’t. And the one who responded was me. The one who can file a complaint because Málaga has been relegated to Primera RFEF or a lawsuit for the responsibility of administrators, is me. The one who signs, takes on the risk and is responsible for the heritage is me,” he continued.
José María Muñoz empathised with the fans’ anger during these difficult times: “I would be the first to be involved in the demonstration if I were not in this position. I understand the frustration, the pain, and the immense anger that we all have. A false hope was created in July and August, everyone thought that there were great players and that Málaga was heading for the playoffs or direct promotion.”
Despite everything, now’s the time to think about the immediate future and for the Malaguistas to regain the desire to accompany the team in the 2023/24 season. “The idea is that we can present something to excite everyone during the season ticket campaign,” he said.
In the words of the judicial administrator, the season ticket campaign will get underway “at the beginning of July” with “the idea of presenting something that excites everyone.” It won’t happen before because “Málaga CF's problem is that we have our own platform for ticketing and are going to migrate to another, that’s why we’re going to delay it.”
Continuing on, Kike Pérez added that “it will be the most aggressive campaign possible for the fans, who are the driving force and the feeling behind all this, so that next season doesn't let us down.”
Lastly, the entity's general manager announced that the Federación de Peñas Malaguistas will be the first to find out about the campaign, and their opinion will be taken into account to adapt it to the concerns of the Blue and White supporters.
