2023-09-29 06:30:27
Girona FC is not only the only team in the Spanish league that has a favorable record against Real Madrid (three wins, two losses and a draw), but it is surely the only club in the world that he had the audacity to pay them with a blank check after playing a friendly match in Montilivi. We have to go back to August 23, 1979. Pere Guardiolacurrent president of Board of Directorsand the coach Michel Sanchez they were only 3 years old, a young man Kim Nadal he had been mayor of Girona for four months and a stranger Florentino Perez had just entered thetown hall of Madrid as councilor of the UCD.
It was the second time in three years that Madrid played a summer friendly in Montilivi. with Vujadin Boskov at the top, he had players like Stalky, Santillana, Forest o Juanito. And Girona, led by the veteran Vincent Sasotformer coach of the Barça first team, played with the brothers Julian, grinderthe Brazilian Alex, Arredondo, Chaves o Javier Subiratsgiven by Valencia. Madrid won 0-4, with goals from Santillana (2), Portugal and Juanito Montilivi was full to overflowing
At the break of the match, there were many slides in the lockers of thestadium. The second half started with an unusual delay in the disbelief of the crowd. Real Madrid, knowing that Girona’s management was plotting something, wanted to collect the entire contract in cash, but the money had flown. The vice president Pueyo he had settled a credit policy with a bank, which had sent the manager and the auditor to the Stadium. In the end, Madrid collected 790,000 pesetas (4,750 euros) in cash and resignedly accepted a check for 3,143,000 pesetas (about 18,830 euros). In 1979, a regular car (a Renault 5and Ford Fiesta o one Seat 124) cost between 2,500 and 3,500 euros. A 100 m² flat could be bought for around 8,000 or 10,000 euros.
Pere Guardiola: “Girona is the first team in Catalonia”
Five days later they confirm to me that the Girona check had no funds, but I do not have any documentary evidence. The president of Girona, Joseph Maria Fauró, comes to the newspaper on the morning of August 28. Appearing calm, I interview him and raise the issue directly. With the hypocrisy that characterized him, he denies it: “It is flatly false that we paid Madrid with a bottomless bill”. And, with all the cynicism in the world, he added: “It would only be necessary for a gentleman’s club like Madrid to treat him in this way”. The next day, events are rushed, Madrid confirms that the heel of the Bank of Vizcaya he has no funds, and that he is willing to execute it. After losing to Girona in the final of theOur Catalonia Trophy” against him Sabadell at the Stadium of Sarria (5-0), Fauró travels in his car at night to Madrid with the intention of convincing the president of Real Madrid, Luis de Carlosand the manager, Antonio Calderon, that do not effect the collection. Petition in debt: “If Girona doesn’t pay, we will turn to whoever, the Federation and in the courts”, said Luis de Carlos. The president of Girona argued that “a manager has taken the money from the box office”. Josep Maria Fauró had joined the board of Girona three years earlier as president of the Sports Commission with Maurice Duran of president He was a native of Besalúwhere he had a bóbila, and before joining Girona he had been vice-president of the Saint Andrew. The summer of 1978 relieved Duran in the presidency.
The days that followed, including the resignation of managers, were frantic. Real Madrid’s non-payment made all the front pages of the newspapers, but this was not the main problem for Girona, who were playing in Segona B. If he did not pay 2,188,000 pesetas (13,150 euros) before the start of the league, on the evening of September 1 in Montilivi against the Córdoba, was downgraded and would surely have been doomed to extinction. Fauró throws down the towel and disappears. A campaign driven by the newspaper The places, Radio Gironathe Rock Buenos Aires and the decisive intervention of the sports speaker of the Deputationthe businessman from Banyol Miquel Calliswho died recently, and whom Fauró had replaced as president of the Girona Sports Commission three years earlier, manages to save the dramatic situation in stoppage time, with the collaboration of the Banca Mas Sardà and the Industrial Bank of the Pyrenees, that advance the money. The Girona and Córdova players were already in the dressing rooms and it was not yet known if the match could be played. The Andalusians won by 0-1. That year, Girona would qualify at the end of the championship three points above relegation.
Josep Maria Fauró would end up submitting his resignation on September 6 in a tense and surreal meeting of members lasting more than three hours held at College La Salle. As soon as he announced that he was leaving, he wanted to continue if he was helped. After the assembly, Joaquim Pouof Sierra de Daróagreed to preside over the Management Board and after a few days the employer Jordi Geli, owner at the time of the Ford dealership, assumed the presidency, a position he held until 1984. Geli, like almost all the presidents of Girona FC since Josep Maria Fauró, also had a conflicting exit, but these are figs of ‘another loaf of bread. That episode of the unpaid check opened a long stage of successive crises in Girona. The disappearance of the club planned on numerous occasions until very recent times, relegations to Regional Preferred i First Catalan included
A few months after the bottomless heel, a meeting held on April 16, 1980 at the headquarters of Real Madrid served to iron out the issues. The Madrid president, Luis de Carlos, who had succeeded the legendary Santiago Bernabeu a year and a half earlier, he met with the new president of Girona FC, Jordi Geli, and the vice president Joan Mis. After the meeting, Luis de Carlos, with that bonhomie and kindness that characterized him, received me in his office to explain the content of the meeting and grant me an interview. Today, it would be impossible. At that time, journalists, and even trainee journalists (I had just turned 21), had direct access to information. The walls of the press offices had not yet been created, nor did the directors of communication exist, it is also true that there were far fewer media than now. Two different and not comparable eras.
Luis de Carlos announced to me that Madrid would play again in Girona the following summer, as part of the club’s 50th anniversary celebrations. Girona set the price to be paid: 3,500,000 pesetas (21,305 euros). Madrid collected the same afternoon of the match, on August 21, with a stub from Banca Mas Sardà. The result, on this occasion, was 1-4, Girona scored the only goal Javi Morata of head, with the vice president of Govern espanyol, Manuel Gutierrez Melladowho spent the holidays in Cadaquésas a witness in the box office.
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