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From face-to-face meetings in the office to video calls. "The day has become infinite," says Patricia Rodríguez . In these dates, the CEO of Elche CF should be closing the accounts for the year, budgeting investments in transfers for the next season, sales, renewals, contracts with sponsors and, in the dreamed scenario, preparing the playoff for the promotion to Primera. "All with the certainty that years of experience in this world give you." However, their day to day has been transformed since the pandemic froze everything in March.

Patricia Rodríguez was the first female executive in a soccer club and is about to become the first vice president of LaLiga on behalf of Segunda clubs. In 2014 she clicked on the offer of a job portal to be the financial director of a company and turned out to be SD Eibar. With the rise of gunsmiths, she became CEO and since then her career has no longer been separated from sports and professional soccer. In the summer of 2019, she joined Elche to clean up a record with which she had already crossed: her administrative decline due to debt kept her Eibar in First season 15/16.

Despite her extensive and recognized management experience, Covid has faced the CEO with unthinkable challenges. "I never imagined having to do an ERTE in a football club," he confesses. “But it is that nobody could think about the social, economic and health scenario that we were going to have in this country. The ERTE was a very difficult and thoughtful decision, but we had to make it, "he clarifies. She herself signed her own cut to support the viability of a club that has spent five years trying to raise its head.

"Work to adapt"

The new normal is approaching, but the impact on the accounts will be sustained over time and will force managers to reinvent concepts to cushion it. The first has been to offer subscribers, as compensation for the remaining six games, the option of having a cardboard figure with their image present in the stadium. At the moment, 300 of the 10,000 have accepted this proposal. "It is also a way to minimize the distance from the fans," he explains. "We have lost the sale of tickets and, in the event of playing the playoffs , that possible ticketing income , the hospitality ... we have significant impacts of income reduction and we have to work to adapt," he warns.

Elche, sixth classified, resumes the competition on Friday the 12th against Extremadura and by then Martínez Valero and the training grounds have to be "a bunker where there is not the slightest risk of contagion" . That has forced unforeseen expenses that will undermine the long-battered accounts just as they began to straighten up.

"Disinfection, cleaning, purchase of protective material ... It is true that it is a common expense in all companies at this time, but the disinfections provided in the protocols are very, very exhaustive and obviously have an additional cost," he explains. To this we must add those generated by the competition itself, for example on trips . “We can no longer travel on commercial flights, they have to be private, and the measures in the hotels are very strict. All this has a significant extra cost for a team like ours, it is an expense that we did not count on ».

"Guarantee equality"

The 11 games are not a process, but a final sprint in which the entire season is at stake and, in the case of Elche, the fight for a promotion without the encouragement of its followers. "The echo in training is tremendous and it will be very rare not to have that factor in its favor. But we are all going to be on an equal footing, "he warns.

Because, given the possibility of recovering the public in the stands , Elche is cautious: «It is a decision that must be taken globally, as has been done so far. It is the way to guarantee the equality and integrity of the competition ».

What if the promotion comes and you can't celebrate? Let no one suffer for it. We will come up with alternatives and when the barriers fall, we will be pending, "smiles the CEO.

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