The sale of Atlético Huila to the Independent Group continues to generate many reactions at the regional and national level. The country’s sports press points out that the team from Huila can become a leading team at the international level, while the new owners aim to save the category in the first place.
John Sebastian Salazar
The news of the week in the sports field was the sale of Atlético Huila to the Independiente Group, led by the Ecuadorian businessman Michel Deller, who is the owner of Independiente del Valle, a very successful team internationally (he is the current champion of the South American Recopa).
Last Friday, through a statement, the club confirmed that the new board of directors will be headed by Maruan David Issa, who will replace Juan Carlos Patarroyo, while the vice president will be Rodrigo Fernández.
Of the previous leaders, the only one who retained his position despite the fact that he sold the shares was Carlos Barrero, who will continue as the club’s general manager.
Short term plans
In principle, the new leadership of the club will be focused on a single objective: to save the category. For this, there will be no romp on the team’s payroll and neither on the coaching staff. What this media outlet has been able to learn is that once the first semester ends for Atlético Huila (three games to go), an evaluation will be made with the coaching staff to find out which positions need to be strengthened for the second semester.
The idea of the new investment group is that the current coaching staff, headed by Professor Néstor Craviotto, continue. “We know that the team has no chance of qualifying. At the end of this semester we are going to evaluate together with the teacher to see which positions require reinforcement and we are willing to do that immediately, not only to save the category in the second semester, but to be protagonists ”, said Maruan David Issa, the club’s new president in dialogue with ESPN.
The project
On the other hand, regarding the project that Grupo Independiente has with Atlético Huila, work will be done similar to that done with Independiente del Valle, both in the football and social aspects.
“Colombian and Ecuadorian soccer are very similar, the players have similar biotypes and we believe that we can also transmit not only the soccer project but also the social project in Colombia and form it. It will be a job that will take time, as has been the Independiente del Valle project and we hope to have the support of the city of Neiva and all of southern Colombia to be able to carry out a project similar to that of Independiente del Valle”, said José Baum, a member of the Independent Group.
“We want to replicate everything we have done in Ecuador with Independiente del Valle, especially in the training of players and we are not talking about football training as such, but about the person, that is why we have a school, it is an investment that the club makes giving education to all children and we want to replicate that in Colombia”, exclaimed Santiago Morales, manager of Independiente del Valle.
sports theme
Finally, the new president of the club, Maruan David Issa, indicated that the future plans with the team, in addition to saving the category, is to take Huila to the South American level. “The expectation today is high but it is important that they accompany us throughout this process. The Atlético Huila fans are happy, and I want to make something clear to them: we want to put Huila on the map of South America, so this is a project that will eventually come true with the support of the fans, their patience and the support of other entities”, finalized the new president of the club.
