The businessman who had to save Lleida CF ends up arrested by the Mossos for an "alleged scam"

BarcelonaTwo weeks ago, Lleida CF announced that it had reached an agreement with an investor that guaranteed "the continuity, stability, and future growth of the club." The club, which has just been relegated to Tercera RFEF after years of struggling to survive, celebrated. On the day of the last match, the fans congratulated themselves, assuming that an inferno was ending. But everything has turned into a nightmare. The club's vice-president, Marc Torres, announced today that the investor was actually a scammer. In fact, Lleida has already filed a complaint with the Mossos d'Esquadra for fraud and document forgery against this foreign businessman who was in the city for a few weeks, met with the club, and showed documentation that suggested he would be the new owner. This has not been the case.

Torres has been very pessimistic, as there is currently no businessman or investor group that can assume the entity's debt. "There is no future, I can do nothing, there is no alternative," he explained. According to Torres, the initial meetings went very well. "He was well-advised, because everything seemed to be going in the right direction," he said today. "But when we started moving papers, I saw that something was strange, that it didn't fit. And we ended up reporting him for fraud and document forgery to the Mossos." According to Torres, this person has been arrested. "This person did not come alone, there is someone behind him," said Torres about this French businessman, with a British passport, from the hotel and restaurant sector, who had signed the commitment to provide the necessary funds for a first payment of 1.8 million euros that the club owes to the Tax Agency and Social Security.

The announcement comes just at the end of a strange season, as for the first time Lleida has not been the best club in the city. The creation of Atlètic Lleida a few years ago has led to this club, with the support of local businessmen but without a social base, playing in Segunda RFEF, even though it has been relegated. Lleida CF, the team that defends the long football tradition of the former Unió Esportiva Lleida, has also been relegated and is now waiting to see if it will disappear.

The last 15 years have been complicated for Lleida's football. In 2011, the historic Unión Deportiva Lleida disappeared, drowned in debt, and in its place, Lleida Esportiu was born, heir to that tradition but with a short, eventful life. With brothers Albert and Jordi Esteve in the box, this club almost made it to Segunda, without luck. Their management caused quite a few problems, such as player complaints for non-payment and debts with the Tax Agency and Social Security. All of this seemed to be heading towards a new economic bankruptcy for the club. And it generated problems with the City Council, which even considered evicting Lleida from the Camp d'Esports, a municipal property.

In 2022, the Esteve family sold the club to former player Luis Pereira, a Galician businessman who had re-established himself as a businessman in Switzerland and who tried to improve the situation, without much luck. In fact, some people had already decided that it was time to bet on another life and founded Atlètic Lleida. This Club Esportivo Atlètic Lleida derives from Atlètic Segre, a local youth club, and also from the Almacelles club, EFAC. The two entities joined forces in 2019, with local football people behind them like Siscu Pujol, the man who at the time had managed to win the auction for the sporting rights of UE Lleida and who became the first president of the new entity before falling out with the Esteve family, their partners at the time. The result was a conglomerate of businessmen prepared to present the city with a new club that has never connected with the social base, which has preferred to continue suffering with the lifelong Lleida. The rivalry between the two clubs has led to fights, debates, and an exchange of reproaches, with the City Council accused of supporting Atlètic Lleida by many fans of a Lleida that has been on the verge of disappearing in recent months, when local fans have kept the club alive until finding a buyer. A buyer who has ended up arrested.