Fernando Roig: "The pandemic affects Spain more, and also its football"

Villarreal has closed a transfer market in which it has moved like few others.

With what some clubs pay for a player, just over 30 million, the Castellón club has been reinforced with Estupiñán -its largest investment, just over 16 million-, Coquelin, Rulli, Take Kubo and Foyth (on loan), and the Former Valencia captain, Dani Parejo, who arrived at zero cost.

And even so, it has been one of the LaLiga clubs that has invested the most.

The CEO, Fernando Roig Negueroles (Valenc

ia, 1974) recognizes that «in a moment of crisis we have risked more to try to make a good team and position ourselves as high as possible».

Villarreal, always a management model to follow, is once again the discordant note, for the better, in Spanish football.

He has done so.

Has it been the roundest market for Villarreal?

Let's see, each market and each operation have their difficulties and are different.

It is true that good players have been acquired at a more or less reasonable price, but there have been other summers of greater need when it was more difficult to sell than to buy.

It is hardly comparable, but I am satisfied with the squad that has been formed, although then you have to show game by game that it really is good.

What has allowed Villarreal to make an investment that not even other bigger clubs have been able to carry out?

For the last six or seven years we have had benefits.

We do not yet have a closed budget this year, but we may have losses that will offset the benefits from previous years.

We have risked to position ourselves as high as possible, but you have to see that each market demands some things.

Last year we did not play in Europe and we had to sell more than buy and this year, despite some sales, it has been the opposite.

You have to balance year by year.

If next year we play European competition we will be less obliged and, if not, we will have to do like the previous season, sell more than buy.

It's about balancing budgets from year to year.

As in previous years we have had benefits, everything we have been generating in the last seven we have spent trying to make the best possible team.

Is it the most ambitious project of Villarreal?

We have spent trying to position ourselves there but there are great teams.

There are the usual ones;

plus Atlético, who have been up for many years;

Sevilla, which is a great team;

Valencia, despite the fact that, a priori, they have lost potential;

Real Sociedad, Betis ... There are good teams and there will be a lot of competition.

Operations like those of Parejo or Luis Suarez, two important players changing teams at zero cost, will they be common from now on?

Each case is a world and zero cost is very relative.

There is always talk of transfers, but players also have a salary to pay, or get rid of, and it is complex.

Maybe Suarez has such a high salary that Barcelona is satisfied simply with not paying it.

This year there is less economic capacity on the part of most of the clubs and there are teams that have had to lower their salary bill, but the removal of players at zero cost has also happened before.

I hope that everyone has more economic capacity because normality returns and we find a vaccine and a solution to this problem and that society in general improves, such as the quality of life.

Maybe Suárez has such a high salary that Barça is content with not paying it

When do you think stadium fans will be able to return?

We don't know, it depends on the CSD.

They are already talking about protocols, but I suppose that during the season it will be valued.

Hopefully people will be vaccinated in the coming months.

I hope and believe that during this season, perhaps with the turn of the year, people can start to go, I don't know what percentage, but that there may already be an audience in the stadiums.

A soccer field, which is an open space, less at the entrances and exits, which must be kept at a distance, I think it is a place likely to start putting people in because it is much safer than others.

It seems that Villarreal has not been affected as much as other clubs by the crisis generated.

It has affected us all.

It is clear that clubs that depend on greater ticketing, such as Real Madrid, for example, which invoice more, are affected more.

But it affects us all, because we all have our subscribers and tickets, but it also affects sponsorships, because companies are having a hard time and spend less.

Clubs like us may lose 10% or 15% of revenue, while a large one is 30% which bill less.

It also indirectly affects the buying and selling of players and that has been noticed in all teams, not just the big ones.

The one with the most money in the box has had the easiest time.

For example, Getafe, which has had a more positive balance for two years, has been more capable, or like us, but it has affected us all, some more and others less.

Is LaLiga losing potential compared to other leagues?

We have self-imposed financial control so as not to generate debt.

It is quite strict and there have been teams that have been unable to do more operations.

With regard to Europe, as it happens in society in general, the pandemic has affected Spain more than others and this is reflected in football.

What do you think of the VAR?

I am a supporter of VAR, but there are things to improve.

I don't like that the referees who whistle are the same as the VAR, I think it should be independent people who are in the VAR.

In addition, arbitration in the field is very intuitive.

Maybe there are very good referees on the field because they have that intuition and then with TV they are not as good, or vice versa.

I think it should separate.

And then it is necessary to unify criteria in some aspects, but we have been here for two years and it is something that will improve over time.

In the end, everything that is giving more justice to the referee's decisions and giving the referee the possibility to consult and see something more calmly, is good.

In the long run it will be positive because it gives more justice to football.

Do you think it would be good to keep the new rules recently introduced as the five changes or broader calls?

I like it.

We lived through it for a couple of months last season and this season we just started.

The templates are getting longer and you have many matches.

People talk about matches, but the coaching staffs talk about minutes played for the load of the players.

In the end it is easier to distribute minutes, especially if you play European competition, and I think it is also attractive for the spectator.

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