'Sevilla FC is open to the world,' said the club president ahead of the Al-Etihad game
Dubai: La Liga club Sevilla play Saudi Pro League side Al-Ittihad on Friday night in the annual Antonio Puerta Trophy match, which is also part of both teams' pre-season preparations.
Arab News spoke to Sevilla president José María del Nido Carrasco about Al-Ittihad and Saudi Arabia's feud with the soccer kingdom.
Here are some of his comments.
Antonio Puerta on the idea behind the trophy…
Antonio Puerta is one of the greatest legends of our club. He was instrumental in our first Europa League title in 2006 and in the months that followed. His passing was a hard blow for the club and the fans, so we honor him every year with this game. We always try to invite top-class teams to provide the best possible tribute to him.
Al-Ittihad playing in the 2024 edition…
We are in the middle of pre-season preparing the team. I believe that by that day, the 26th, we will have completed the 20 days of training that we started on the 6th of July. We want to continue training and implementing our new coach's game model. We hope Sevilla fans enjoy a good game, ensure competitiveness and let all of us who love football start to see what Sevilla will be like in the coming season.
In the Saudi Pro League project…
The growth of the Saudi Pro League is very interesting. For clubs like Sevilla FC, where part of our business model is based on making a profit by selling players that allows us to make new investments, it is important that emerging markets are willing to invest. The key now is to maintain that level of investment for local players, building solid structures in clubs, professionalizing all areas and investing in the formation of youth teams to allow technical improvement in local players.
Sevilla's presence at the World Football Summit in Jeddah last December…
Our experience at this summit was very positive. Various members of our club were able to see firsthand how football is developing in Saudi Arabia, and we can expand our network of contacts in the region to continue generating alliances and synergies.
Sevilla's relationship with Saudi Arabia…
We have made several trips to Saudi Arabia. Our Head of Artificial Intelligence, Elias Zamora, visited to demonstrate the tools we have and can offer to the general football market and Saudi Arabia in particular. In addition, through our sports management, we can share our extensive knowledge, our transfer policy, and our scouting policy, which have been identified in recent years and further improved with artificial intelligence. We aim to create bonds where we can learn from them, and they can learn from Sevilla Football Club.
Sevilla's famous scouting system on export…
At the beginning of the 21st century, we started a scouting policy that allowed us to find unknown players in the market. These players came to Sevilla Football Club, we maximized their performances, achieved sporting successes in the form of European qualifications and national and European titles, and then we sold them, generating significant profits that we reinvested in new signings. When this practice became more common in football, we introduced a new factor: artificial intelligence. This sports know-how can be offered to the Arab market through artificial intelligence and scouting of each club, to create an effective player acquisition and sales policy.
In building Sevilla's global ties…
Sevilla Football Club is a club open to the world. Our internationalization plan aims to grow our fan base worldwide, and to do so it is important to continue building relationships with clubs in different regions. We are also open to playing away against other clubs if an attractive opportunity arises.
