Marlene Santos Alejo: Summary of the day

▲ After the frustration of losing to Espanyol of Barcelona in 2024, Jesús Martínez celebrated Real Oviedo's promotion on Saturday. Photo taken from the Real Oviedo website.

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Jesus Martinez Patiño enjoys The enormous joy of achieving promotion in a sporting manner. In addition to the fight and determination that Real Oviedo displayed on the field, they also combined their investment and talent in a league as demanding as the Spanish one. The Asturian club, which Grupo Pachuca took over in 2022, is now among the elite. Thousands of fans celebrated on Saturday at the Carlos Tartiere stadium and overflowed euphorically onto the field, eager to touch their heroes. They laughed and cried with happiness… That is the pleasure—all things considered—that has been stolen from Liga MX fans by the loss of promotion.

With such a feat, Martínez Patiño's leadership and stock market have grown to become a giant, worthy of admiration among Mexican team owners, currently divided into two groups: one of them, the so-called G-8, headed precisely by Grupo Pachuca. The other group is led by Televisa, creator of timeshares... True, both have their tails to step on, the difference is that the former stands out with sporting achievements in any field they place him, and is already enjoying recognition beyond his borders.

Martínez knows how to promote teams. He did it with Tuzos in 1998. The same with León: he acquired it in 2010 and a couple of years later put it in the First Division. In 2016, he promoted Argentine side Talleres de Córdoba, which ended up in the hands of his former partner Andrés Fassi, who was offered (and refused) the position of director of the Argentine Football Association. They sensed he had the know-how , having been a collaborator of Martínez… It took him three years to develop Real Oviedo, of which he is a majority shareholder with Grupo Carso, owned by Carlos Slim. Exultantly, he proclaimed having achieved the most important challenge of his career .

The Grupo Pachuca leader is a born publicist. Just remember the display of gestures and praise that overwhelmed Joseph Blatter, former FIFA president, at the inauguration of the Tuzo Pavilion in 2009. He played a video summarizing the Swiss footballer's career, with the background music of the song "Amigo ," the one that had captivated Pope John Paul II in 1979. He couldn't fail: Blatter's eyes filled with tears, and, moved to his core, he asked Martínez: "Call me Sepp!" as my friends call me .

He didn't neglect his family; Felipe Calderón was the president and he was invited. The host emphasized that the president's son, Felipillo, is a fan of the Tuzos , and gave him a jersey... You can all imagine the respective courtship he must have made to the Hidalgo governors who donated him land... He showered the referees with attention, accustomed to receiving only insults and complaints. With the Nazarenos, it all ended when some suspicions arose... Fair to say: he applied himself like no one else to polishing talent, and he displaced Pumas and Chivas in that task.

A few weeks ago, he suffered the setback of seeing León expelled from the Club World Cup due to timeshare issues, but the bitter pill passed as soon as he saw that América was unable to replace him... and although the Tuzos were eliminated from the Mundialito , Martínez is invigorated, determined to consolidate his position in Spain. And in Mexico, to reduce Televisa's hold on power, backed by the G-8 (Tigres, Rayados, Juárez, San Luis, Chivas, Toluca, León, and Tuzos); he also applauds the move by Fox Corporation, which will broadcast games featuring Tuzos, León, Xolos, Gallos Blancos, Tigres, and Bravos.

The Expansion League is a reflection of the top league. Here, there's a G-6 (Morelia, Atlético La Paz, UdeG, Venados, Mineros, and Cancún) that filed a complaint with the Court of Arbitration for Sport. The Mexican Football Federation wants to expose and suffocate it by withdrawing financial support, but all it does is expose it, revealing its poor governance because it's under its tutelage. The First Division federations and owners spend their time dreaming of an alliance with American soccer, and they don't see the chaos at home.

Despite the billion dollars in prize money that FIFA president Gianni Infantino will distribute at the World Cup , not everyone is happy. Javier Tebas, president of the Spanish League, has vowed to phase out the event due to a congested schedule. FIFpro, the global players' union, is following suit, filing a complaint in Brussels on June 13, 2024, and another one last October with the European Commission.