Mohamed El Assy: ‘Spanish sponsors rank equally with the Arabs’
The Club general director gives a lecture at the University, in which he states ‘UD Almería is not a state-owned club but a bet by Turki Alalshikh’
UD Almeria General Director and CEO Mohamed El Assy has participated at a conference organised at the University of Almeria as he was invited by the Faculty of Economic and Business Sciences. The lecture brought together more than 100 people at the UAL Auditorium. The Rojiblancos’ leader has spoken about the recent past, present and future of the UD Almería project, which he has described as ‘a good bet by Turki Alalshikh,’ ruling out that it is a state-owned club as in other cases.
Mohamed El Assy, who was presented by student faculty representative Ariadna Fernández Torres, explained that UD Almería are taking steps forward in many ways, although there is a long way to go. He supplied relevant information such as the fact that ‘when we arrived, the advertising revenue was around 4,000€ and we increased it to 6m € through Arab sponsors. Now, they rank equally with Spanish sponsors.’
Another significant aspect that was highlighted was their arrival in Almeria since ‘in the first year under the new management, the budget was 9m € and the current one will be around 40m €, including also the first step with the remodelling works of the Stadium that will be completed in May and then, the second step will be taken, which will consist of lowering the pitch to bring the stands closer and increasing its capacity to around 25,000 spectators
The first phase will kick off with a great concert of two international artists and there will also be musical performances when the Rozam Sport Bar opens, which will be set up in the well-known venue called Bribón de La Habana, located in the Aguadulce marina. Cultural and social events will come back since the Rozam Festival Music could not continue due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Mohamed El Assy preferred not to talk about promotion and called for humility and prudence, however he reiterated ‘moving up to the top tier was vital for the project since the income would be more than 60m €. In addition, as he stated, competing in Primera Division would be easier than doing so in the Segunda Division, where you have to win a minimum of 25 games to earn promotion’ ... and he also stressed ‘if we move up, UD Almería won’t go back down to the second tier.’
On another note, the Club general director pointed out that a new challenge to take on is that of the Academy and the Sports Complex ‘but we need an area of approximately 1,000 sq. m that we hope to find shortly to begin the construction.’
UD Almería and the Faculty of Economic and Business Sciences raffled off 5 double tickets for Saturday's game against SD Huesca among the attendees, as well as a football and a first-team jersey signed by all the squad members.