Interview with President Anil Murthy

The President of Valencia CF, Anil Murthy, analyzes in this interview with VCF MEDIA the publication of some audios recorded at a work dinner by the newspaper Superdeporte.

This newspaper, which has been carrying out a smear campaign against Valencia CF for months, has illegitimately published recordings that belong to the private sphere, taken out of context, edited and adulterated.

A surreal situation that President Anil Murthy has had no problem explaining in depth in order to respond to each of the malicious interpretations of his words.

An interview to explain a surreal situation

I am here to clarify things, because I have nothing to hide. We are in a surreal situation, at a time of the season in which we all have to focus on the final game against Celta Vigo.

These things are undoubtedly related to the 'movement' organised to damage the club, damage the team and damage us all in the final game of the season on Saturday.

The audio recordings were released at working dinner with Valencian businessmen to promote a solidarity event

It was a work meeting in a restaurant, to promote the charity event 'La Nit De Valencia' on June 2nd. We had the presence of five Valencian businessmen, to explain the night and to try to get more Valencians and businesspersons involved in such an important night.

Months ago, Superdeporte began a campaign to smear Valencia CF. That is very evident. It has been a long time since that newspaper was a point of reference in Valencia. They began a dishonest, interested campaign, after the club had refused to pay them dozens of thousands of euros to subsidise them.

It is a normal conversation there are no attacks or disqualifications towards anybody

I am very surprised and even more disappointed. There were no codes or limits followed. It is unpleasant to have anybody record you without your consent, in a private situation. It was a private dinner to talk about a nice event. It was a normal conversation. It's true that it was relaxed in tone, but everybody can see that there is no attack or disqualification towards anybody.

All five business men assure that they did not record the conversation

In that dinner, with those businessmen, I explained my point of view on what is happening with the club, what we wanted to do, the challenges that the club have, the difficulties that we have had with no Champions League football and with COVID. I wanted to explain to them, so that they could also explain to their colleagues, friends and families what is really happening at Valencia CF.

It was a normal conversation. I have these conversations with many people, privately, to try to explain clearly what our point of view is, how we want to solve problems and how we want to grow as a club. I have these dinners with different groups, to try to explain to them clearly and try to pass this message on to other people. What seems very strange to me is that, in that meal, what happened, happened. Somebody recorded the conversation. The five businessmen have assured me that it was not them. These things happen. There are no limits or codes followed. It's immoral.

The audio recordings were adulterated and edited to generate controversy 

The most serious thing is that it was not only recorded, but adulterated and edited. For example: The audio recording about Carlos Soler. It was a mix between talking about his ambition, his desire if he were to leave, his will to do that well, what happened with Ferran Torres and his departure.

It speaks very well of Ferran Torres, because he is now at Barcelona and the club sold him for a sum that I consider to be very good. He defended the club and our homegrown players.

 For example, the question was: "What are you going to do with the youth players? Are they going to spend their whole lives at the club?" I explained clearly that, nowadays, in football there are players who have their own ambitions and projects, and that we have to respect those professionals.  There are some who stay, and others who are going to leave. The project for the academy is to ensure that there is a pipeline of players who will move up to the first team. We have to respect the decisions of the players, as they are professionals.

What happened with this way of editing what we said about Carlos Soler is simply surreal. It hurts the player and the club, and for what? The audio about Gayà is also edited. It mixes an idea, in which I said that he is a worthy captain for this club, and that he wants to fight after the defeat in the cup final. He was K.O.d. He was very disappointed to lose the final on penalties.

It's true. They mixed that with an explanation of how Financial Fair Play works at clubs. When I say “José Luis” they put in another part. It is very evident. It is edited to cause damage.

Negotiations to renew Soler and Gayà's contracts are underway and the club want them to continue to be benchmarks for us

We are negotiating with the agents of Carlos Soler and Gayà to renew their deals. Soler and Gayà, and also their agents, know that the club have limits. They are two international players, and they are top quality. Both would prefer to renew, but if in the end we do not reach an agreement, we must treat them well and let them continue with their dreams. Our preference as a club is that they stay. They are points of reference for the club and for the team.

A stable project with a technical secretariat working long-term

This year we have made a commitment with a new coach to keep the team and the most important players. We have signed well within our economic limits. With CVC we have a little more room to make signings, and we have done everything within our possibilities to put together a competitive squad.

In football, sometimes it doesn't always work. We have not been able to qualify for Europe. What will happen next year? We have to look again at the situation with Financial Fair Play. I will have time to explain to the fans what the state of play is, but the reality is that we are not in Europe and we have to build a squad within our possibilities.

It is a rule that LaLiga sets and we cannot ignore it. We are working within these limitations to make the most competitive squad possible. I am optimistic because we have a technical secretariat with a very stable sports management in place. They are not here for the short term, but rather to build a long-term project. We are patient. The most important thing is to reach financial sustainability, as without sustainability nothing will work.

We have to work within our limitations and I am optimistic about that. This year we have also signed through lowering the cost of the squad in January and improving it. I fully trust in the sports management that we have. This was an important conversation during the meal. From outside, some businessmen -and it was the first time I was with them- asked me about all the talk that there is from outside surrounding the sports management.

I explained to them that structurally, when there are only two-year contracts, a sporting director wants to do his best to win trophies and achieve things. It is a conversation about theory, not directed towards anyone. Today we work to have stability, and I fully trust in the structure we have today.

Until a few years ago, the Club had a budget of 100,000 euros to spend on advertising in the media, but currently, not anymore

I see that some journalists, especially from Superdeporte, have wanted to make a big controversy with an amount of 100,000 euros that was mentioned. I'm going to explain it: Seven years ago, more or less, the club had, like the City Council or the Generalitat, a budget to work with the media for buying advertising. We decided that the priority for the club was to create our own voice to be able to speak to the fans directly, without a filter. We invested this money by creating VCF MEDIA, to whom I am speaking today.

VCF MEDIA continues to grow. Previously in football, many clubs used this money to pay the press to pressure players into renewals, etc. We have moved away from this model, but Superdeporte and its criminal collaborator have decided to mix these things to harm Carlos Soler, me personally and the club. These things are surreal, but sometimes they happen.

An audio recording defending Valencia CF’s interests against the Spanish Royal Federation’s position of abuse will be released  

We are very calm about the audios that are still to be released. One of them is related to the Spanish Football Federation. The content of these conversations aims to defend the interests of Valencia CF against a position of abuse by Rubiales and the Federation, on the subject of the Supercopa. I've been doing it since day one. On other topics we speak well with each other, but this topic is wrong. As everyone knows, we are involved in lawsuits and we are going to defend the money that belongs to us for the 2019 Supercopa until the end, and when we have to sit down to negotiate the next edition of the Supercopa, we will do so with the same mentality and firmness.

The importance of the new stadium and the joint work to find solutions

At the meal we talked a lot about the new stadium, the project and the concept we have. Once again, they had heard ideas and messages from outside, not from the club, and they had the mistaken idea that the club did not want to finish the project. When I explained to them the importance of this project for Valencia CF, how we see this new ground as the opportunity to consolidate a different offer in the city and an investment of more than 450 million euros in the city on the entire project... They were very surprised.

When I spoke about the land project and about being the top ground in the world on an environmental level, they were very surprised. They asked me what is happening with the politicians in Valencia and why there is no movement. We talked frankly, thinking that we were in a private situation. The truth is, I am not going to hide that I am worried about the movement with the new stadium, and I hope that we will have new work meetings to find a solution that will be comfortable for the politicians and very good for Valencia CF and the city.

We have to focus on working together, I've said it many times: We have to stick together with the idea of ​​finishing this stadium, after so many years of the project standing still. It must be a priority for everyone, and we have to solve this together and celebrate that we have finally removed this thorn from the city, turning it into something very beautiful for everyone.

Continue asserting the VCF Academy project to put together an ambitious and competitive team within our financial possibilities    

The club have our priorities and our project. It is based on a significant investment in the youth system and on not living beyond our means -as was the case years ago. We have suffered for three seasons trying to fix the financial problem. The VCF Academy project continues with strong investment, and the first team project has to be in line with the possibilities we have.

I'm fully confident. I'm excited because we have a technical secretariat and sports management that are working non-stop to put together a squad that is going to be very competitive.

This year I can say that we have tried to be 100% responsible within our possibilities. The truth is that we spent a little more because we were so excited about returning to the Champions League or Europa League...

That is not what has happened, but I am a football fan too. We have to be a little stricter with the limits that we have. I hope to do my best, together with our technical secretariat, to put together a squad within our possibilities and that is competitive.