"If we maintain our principles, we’ll keep competing at this level"

Miguel Ángel Gil Marín reviews the current situation of Atlético de Madrid in an interview after the season has ended, in which our club managed to compete on equal terms with the greatest teams in Europe.

- How would you describe the season that just finished?

I believe we’ve accomplished another great season. The club has continued growing on every level: sporting, institutional, and social. It’s been an excellent season. The level we have been showing in recent years is letting us become an example of sports management and policy, a model to follow.

We’ve accomplished another great season. The club keeps growing in every level: sporting, institutional, and social. It’s been an excellent season.

 - What do you think is the main reason of this success?

Without a doubt, to the principles that identify our club: solidarity, humility, effort, passion. We apply them all on every layer of the organization. Everything we’re achieving is based on these principles, they are our hallmark and that’s exactly what allows us to compete with other clubs that surpass us in terms of income or assets.

- In sporting terms, the team’s performance in recent years has been really spectacular, but, is it possible to make it last?

It’s going to depend on our ability to maintain our principles as the basis of our daily job. As long as these prevail, the cycle can keep going because there are players with plenty of talent and youth to make this last, and other players with the necessary experience to transmit to the young ones what Atlético de Madrid really is. The level of demand required by the coach and his coaching team, as well as the current commitment, together with this attitude and these principles, will allow us to keep competing at this level.

It’s getting more complicated for us to find players with the necessary talent who can meet our demanding level and our playing model

 - And, thinking about keeping such a high level for the next season, what is the strategy to strengthen the group?

We’re working in the same line I talked about earlier. Every new member who comes must fit in this group and this model. It’s getting more complicated for us to find players with the necessary talent who can meet our demanding level and our playing model. Not every talented player can adapt to our philosophy, where the main principles are based on effort, humility, and solidarity, where the individualities are never above the team, where everyone runs a lot. Our goal is to make as few changes as possible, since our team’s base is already established.

- But, do you think it is possible to keep improving the squad’s level?

Everyone in the club is ambitious and tough, we want to compete at the maximum level, and win. But we must analyse whether we can compete with the greatest teams on a permanent basis with our income levels. We must consider what kind of club we want to have and what kind of club we can afford to have. Those are two very different things. Last season’s income has increased, but we’re still fighting in the competitions with a budget of 200 million, compared to other teams with more than 600 million. We finished the season fourth in UEFA's ranking, while our income is in the 15th position. Our hope, our goal, is to maintain the growing trend of recent years in management and income, but reality is what it is, and sometimes, it can be too risky trying to compete at the same level with real financial empires. I can’t stop thinking about the examples of Valencia and Deportivo de La Coruña, which after winning one national league, tried to keep competing against the big teams and the outcome was close to the bankruptcy of their societies. It’s also essential to know our own limitations. I insist that the key lies in the principles of the entity and how they are applied by those of us who are part of Atlético de Madrid. If we want to survive in this field, and keep growing every year, I don’t know any other formula than to put all our efforts in everything we do, and to work with hope without losing the humility and the passion. Those are the values that define us and make us improve.

- What does Simeone mean in all this growth?

Diego perfectly represents the values we’re trying to transmit as a club: effort, excitement, ambition, hard work. It’s important for the club to have a person like him, who can transmit the current requirement level, but both him and us are constantly trying to find impossible equilibriums. That’s why we have the efficiency level that led us to the 4th position on the UEFA ranking, while we are 15th in income, although we must be aware and understand that big instabilities can lead to huge disasters. And my responsibility is to assume risks, but control them.

Football can bring out the best and the worst in people, but fortunately, there are exceptions who still maintain their principles despite the environment in which they live; I want those exceptions by my side

 - You are constantly bringing up the importance of values in this world. Why do you insist so much?

Because they are what allows us to compete despite the existing differences. Football can bring out the best and the worst in people, because it’s a world where money, passion, egos and vanities live together… and that mix can be explosive because it can make people forget their principles. But fortunately, there are exceptions who still maintain their values despite the environment in which they live; those are the exceptions I want by my side to make our club bigger and better.

- What is the role of the social mass in this constant growth of the club?

Our supporters are the base of everything. They are the ones who give meaning to our work and, without them, it's not possible to plan this goal of constant growth. This has been another season in which their loyalty has broken all records. We have managed to have more than 86,000 members at the end of the season, the Calderón has had more full houses than ever, 19 million fans follow us on social media, and thousands of Atléticos have travelled with the team for their games around Spain and Europe. These are signs of the union that exists among the fans, the club, and the team, which makes Atlético stronger thanks to the values that we all share.

Our league is growing increasingly stronger every day and this makes the clubs that belong to it stronger too

 - The management of the National Professional Football League (LFP) is also becoming key in the growth of the clubs. How do you value its role?

Very positively. Our league is growing increasingly stronger every day and this makes the clubs that belong to it stronger too. The economic control over the clubs, as well as the approval of the joint selling of the broadcasting rights and their subsequent commercialization have been a turning point for Spanish clubs. The prosecution of rigging, the work towards creating environments in stadiums for friends and families to spend time together, eradicating violent people, is also an essential part of the work. The professionalization that LaLiga is accomplishing during these last years has led to a qualitative leap for all of us, and it has to be acknowledged publicly. In the past, it was unthinkable that international investors would come to our football, because of the lack of legal security and the unreliable financial soundness of the clubs. With the implementation of controlling measures we have ended the bankruptcy proceedings, which were very common in the past, and our football is consolidating and becoming an attractive market for big foreign investors.

The new stadium will serve to consolidate and strengthen the growth of our club

 - Regarding the growth we are talking about, the club's greatest wager is moving to the new stadium. What will this change mean for Atlético de Madrid?

As we've discussed more than once, will serve to consolidate and strengthen the growth of our club. It will allow us to offer more and better services to our fans. Right now, we need a stadium with more capacity, more comfortable, more functional, with better technology, more accessible… In the new stadium, the Atléticos will enjoy new experiences, create new habits and live the matches of our team with the same passion in a field with better entertainment and restaurant offers, more parking spaces, better accesses, and a large variety of seats and prices. The stadium will be able to hold big football events, which we can’t host right now, and its multifunctionality will allow us to hold events and congresses that will multiply the income in pursuit of our goal to keep growing in all the areas.

- How are the relations with the local government regarding the move?

It’s fundamental that the administrations and the sports clubs walk hand in hand, since sports, culture and entertainment are essential for our society. Clubs like Real Madrid or Atlético de Madrid represent the city around the world and this should be something to be proud of, not only for our fans but also for the politicians that represent us.

It's a source of pride to see six players from our Academy lined-up in the Champions League final

 - To finish, and since we're talking about the future, the Academy is another of the pillars which hold the entity. What is the club's wager on its youth ranks?

For me, it's a source of pride to see six players from our Academy lined-up in the Champions League final, such as Gabi, Koke, Saúl, Torres, Thomas, and Lucas. The Academy is where our players are trained in the principles we talked about earlier, so that later on they can transmit them to all the others who join our project. That is why the role of the Academy is so fundamental for us. Our goal in this field is also to make our facilities and areas of influence grow, improve the services that we offer to our players and educate them in those values that they will later put into practice on the playing field and in their lives. As I said before, football brings out the best and the worst in people; therefore, it’s important that we create those exceptions in our Academy that will capture and defend the values of the club.