The Catalan clothing brand that sucked money from footballers and then did not return it

BarcelonaThe Vega Andújar family founded a project in the sports events sector in 1999. They organized a Coca-Cola Cup and some summer camps. The idea evolved towards the distribution of sportswear, and at the beginning of the 2000s, it grew to have eight multi-brand stores. From this initiative, Gedo (Gestión de Eventos Deportivos y Ocio) was born, founded in May 2002, and it grew to the point of outfitting more than 800 sports clubs throughout the country. In Catalonia, l’Hospitalet, Llagostera, Terrassa, and Reus were part of its client portfolio. But what seemed like a solvent business was not so much in reality. In fact, up to five transactions by brothers Ricard and Jordi Vega to raise funds for the company have ended up in court due to non-payment. Other attempts to capitalize Gedo, which today is a project in limbo, have involved several professional footballers. Most have lost their money and their faith in recovering it.

One of the visible triggers of the case is the lawsuit filed in 2023 by a family who won 34 million euros in La Primitiva and decided to lend 2 million to Gedo. The investment reached them through Sandra Solé, the intermediary hired to attract investors for the defunct CF Reus. In fact, this same family invested 2.7 million in the companies that managed the Baix Camp club, a sum they have also not recovered. Solé was a partner at the time of Raúl Tamudo. According to this lawsuit, pending oral trial, the 2 million lent to Gedo were not invested in the company, but would have been used to pay debts affecting the Vega family's properties. A Barcelona lawyer, who declines to reveal her identity, initiated another proceeding, which is in the investigation phase, for the non-payment of 960,000 euros to a company of her family. In parallel, former Gedo employees Òscar Aldrich and Daniel Cabezón claim to be on the verge of losing properties for having lent money to the Vega brothers, whom they knew from playing football together.

Two former workers, about to lose their home

Aldrich started at the sports shop that Gedo had in Barcelona's Nou Barris district in March 2003 and later moved up to more responsible positions. The complainant recalls that from 2010 onwards, Jordi Vega began manufacturing in China under his own brand Gedo, which expanded in Spain largely thanks to Pablo and Jaime Ros. These two brothers from Malaga injected money in 2013 with a loan they backed with a property valued at 2 million euros. They later lost it because the principal was never repaid. They have not reported it.

The non-payments had been going on for a long time. "They started early. We were young, friends, and we thought everything would change because we were actually selling a lot of clothes," says Aldrich, who from 2006 began to request loans at the Vegass' request to keep Gedo afloat. In this first period of operations, he raised 156,000 euros, of which he recovered 130,000 with intermittent payments. A year later, things got complicated. Jordi Vega asked him to guarantee a loan of 208,000 euros with his flat "to help Gedo." Very soon the company stopped repaying the capital. A decade later, Aldrich received a notification from CaixaBank, which claimed 232,836 euros from him and threatened him with losing the flat where he lives. In 2019, CaixaBank sold Gedo's debt, which amounted to 246,037 euros, to the creditor Finsolutia, which defined a payment plan with the Vegas. However, Gedo only paid 19,500 euros. Aldrich explains with concern that his lawsuit has been dismissed and he is looking for a way to reopen it: "Justice tells me I am right, but that I am late." In 2016 he left Gedo, which also owes him more than 15,000 euros in unpaid wages, and today he is in full litigation to avoid eviction.

The case of Daniel Cabezón is similar. Shortly after joining Gedo as an advertising and marketing technician, between 2006 and 2013, he requested loans – in his name, his wife's name, and his mother-in-law's name – for a total of 84,250 euros, of which he recovered just over 60,000. Finally, in December 2013, Daniel took out a final loan from CaixaBank "to help Gedo" for 145,000 euros with the guarantee of his parents' apartment. He did this to help the company he worked for. "They were favors, we didn't profit from them," emphasizes Cabezón, who in 2018, like Aldrich, was sued for a debt of 127,628 euros. He is worried about a possible eviction from the apartment where his sister lives today. Sant Cugat del Vallès, where he lives, is small enough to run into Ricard Vega from time to time. "One day he told me he would call me to settle what he owed me. Obviously, he hasn't called," he laments.

Footballers known especially for their past at Espanyol

But the cases of Aldrich and Cabezón, who until recently had not mutually explained that Gedo owed them money, are only a small part of the hole. The project had dozens of investors. Among the victims are well-known faces, such as former FC Barcelona and Espanyol player Toni Velamazán, who joined the company as a partner with an investment of 440,000 euros. Later, he participated in capital increases with 150,000 and 640,000 euros. As part of this second operation, Velamazán contributed a premises in Masnou valued at 580,000 euros (it was used as a shop) and three parking spaces in the same municipality for 20,000 euros each. These contributions appear in the Mercantile Registry. Consulted by ARA, Velamazán defends Gedo despite not having recovered the investments: "I have no complaints even though the project has not taken off as we all hoped." Sources close to the former player assure that he still hopes to recover the money "the easy way".

Another former FC Barcelona and Espanyol footballer also participated by lending 100,000 euros to Jordi Vega, who never returned the investment. He took legal action, where the debt was recognized, but he has not recovered the money because Vega and Gedo declare themselves insolvent. Another former 'perico' also contributed 100,000 euros, but in his case, he was lucky enough to recover it after Gedo made him a transfer "by mistake". Another illustrious member of this same generation at Espanyol was not so lucky: he put 100,000 euros into Gedo and another 100,000 euros into Jordi Vega's pocket, amounts he considers lost, as he acknowledges to ARA. A former Getafe footballer who invested an additional 60,000 euros also gives up recovering the money. For his part, a prominent Brazilian ex-FC Barcelona futsal player put money into Gedo and has not collected it either. This newspaper has tried to get these external investors to reveal their identity, but they have preferred not to. "I'm ashamed that it's known that I was scammed by these people," argues one of them.

In early 2018 the project was already sunk. However, through

Poor management led Gedo to liquidation

Former Gedo employees also explain that sports equipment disappeared. “If we received 100 t-shirts, I only received 30. The other 70, or the money for the other 70, we didn’t know where they were,” states one of the former employees consulted. “They broke into the warehouse in Rubí and the rumor was that Ricard Vega organized everything to collect the insurance. In another warehouse, the fire alarm went off at night and all the material was lost. They collected almost 400,000 euros from the insurance,” recalls another person. Other sources say that Gedo lost millions in clothing that arrived in containers from China because it could not pay the customs duties.

Elite athletes and families relaunch GedoA utopian return

In early 2018, the project was already sunk. However, through an article in Palco23, titled an article in Palco23, titled Deportistas de élite y familias relanzan Gedo, the Vegas announced their intention to revive it with an investment of 10 million euros. Three years later, however, the company Gedo Distridep was definitively liquidated, although this investigation is aware of up to nine other companies that the Vega family has created in recent years to keep the project active. In fact, in 2023, a market study was commissioned to prepare for a new relaunch.

The solution at the end of 2023 was to propose to former Gedo investors that they reinvest money with the promise of recovering it along with past debts. The majority declined the offer. However, like Velamazán, there are participants who still see some option of recovering the capital. This is the case of the former head of La Masia, Carles Folguera, who in statements to ARA still sees light at the end of the tunnel: “Gedo was an exciting project when I first encountered it, and it still is today. However, for various reasons, it has such a high level of complexity that resolving everything properly has required more time than anticipated from everyone”.

ARA has requested the participation of brothers Jordi and Ricard Vega in this report, but has received no response.