Regarding the opinions and statements that many of the ills that afflict Mexican soccer are due to the power of the promoters and players’ agents, one of the most influential promoters of Aztec football, such as Guillermo Lara, stated that these accusations are very difficult to prove.
In an interview with La Opinión, Memo Lara addressed the controversial issue of the influence of promoters in Mexican soccer and did so by citing specific cases. Liga MX and Mexican soccer in general are going through times of relative uncertainty and many criticisms reflected in the current situation of the Mexican national team.
“How can I prove it…? I give you a very significant example of what happened with Víctor Manuel Vucetich at Monterrey,” Lara said, citing the long-standing and successful Mexican technical director. “The team was a leader with him the entire season, he did all the things well and an angry guy (a club manager) arrives because they lost and before starting the press conference he fires him. What immaturity of him, is he God? What has he done in his life?
And Lara added about that reference chapter: “He was already a manager in Ciudad Juárez, in Morelia and nothing happened. Now you reward him. With Morelia nothing, with Juárez nothing and today they give him Monterrey. What a father for him, but that’s how things are.”
José Antonio “Tato” Noriega is the sports director of Monterrey. Lara, who does not mention his name expressly, tries to illustrate with this story the way in which promoters can influence clubs in Mexico.
Memo Lara assures that he is not banned from Mexican soccer
Precisely on this issue of the promoters and against the versions that claim that Guillermo Lara is banned and designated as a “non grata” person in Mexican soccer, the player representative himself denied it and he said that all this is due to the dispute over the contract of former Brazilian naturalized Mexican player Leandro Augusto, when he was transferred to the UNAM Pumas.
Lara, in his presentation of the details about the alleged veto to work in Aztec football, said: “It was not a punishment, it is something that saddens me, this situation, and why? Officially there was no punishment, but it was a journalistic thing handled by Alberto de la Torre (former president of the Mexican Football Federation). Because a pend*** published: ‘Memo Lara is banned’, and everyone said: ‘Oh yes, he’s already banned.’”
Guillermo Lara is a promoter of soccer players who had a very influential role in Mexico starting in the 90s and who over the years has been an important part of the arrival to Aztec football of people like the prestigious Argentine technical director César Luis Menotti, the stellar Chilean player Jorge “Mortero” Aravena, the talented Brazilian Milton Queiroz “Tita” and the Colombian striker Jackson Martínez, among others.
Lara too He was involved in controversial issues due to his relationship with the Puebla businessman Emilio Maurer, who in the early 90s challenged the Televisa company for the broadcasting rights of the Mexico national team.as well as in failed signings such as that of the Colombian Tressor Moreno with Necaxa.
The promoter added: “But they never told me anything officially and they had no reason to veto me, I didn’t belong to them (the Mexican Football Federation). “They weren’t right about anything.”
Promoter Lara tells story of alleged corruption among managers
Guillermo Lara elaborated on the alleged Femexfut veto against him: “I did not work for them, number 1, and number 2, Alberto de la Torre was a president who did business with players and That day it occurred to Alberto de la Torre and Roberto Zermeño to steal Leandro Augusto from me, but I had all the documentation”.
According to the promoter, the aforementioned dispute over the solid Brazilian midfielder who later became a Mexican naturalized player occurred around 2008.
Alberto de la Torre did not respond to calls from La Opinión to respond about this controversy that also involved Zermeño, then owner and president of Club León.
Lara explained: “That’s why del León took Pumas to Leandro Augusto and that’s why they got angry, because they already had the deal done. Alberto de la Torre had already done business with Zermeño to make extra money. I sold a certain amount to Leandro and they had given him $500,000 more to steal money. And no one asked me that, no one knows.”
Guillermo Lara went further in his comments: “Then Alberto de la Torre did an interview, already very angry, and managed in his little head by Roberto Zermeño, he told a journalist who came out to post, because there have always been journalists, you know, that lend themselves to that.”
”In that interview it was published that Guillermo Lara is banned, but I say, banned from what? Then I went to Javier Jiménez Espriú, who was then president of Pumas, and I told him: ‘Since you showed interest in this player Leandro Augusto, here he is and everything is in order. But there is this problem, because since you are showing me all the documents, everything is fine.’ So this is how Leandro Augusto arrives at Pumas.”
According to the promoter, after having won at the table with the aforementioned transaction from Leandro Augusto to Pumas, There was a meeting of directors in León and Alberto de la Torre, being president of the Federation, stated that Lara was banned.
“But when Justino Compeán came in as president of the Mexican Football Federation, I operated with him, I worked with him; I asked him if we could see the charter of that board and he ordered that an exhaustive search be carried out. They didn’t find the articles of incorporation, they didn’t find anything. “They never informed me anything,” Lara added.
So you’ve never been officially banned?
“Tell me why I’m banned. Ah, why didn’t you let yourself be robbed by these two thugs, well yes. I didn’t let myself be stolen from them, so the same thing was going to happen in Veracruz when Alberto de la Torre managed the Veracruz team (April 2008 together with the company Promofut). The governor of the state of Veracruz, Fidel Herrera, hired me to fix everything he had done and there I should have put him (Alberto de la Torre) in jail and I didn’t do it because the governor didn’t want to.”
At this point Lara reaffirmed in conclusion: “The governor told me: ‘We are going to avoid scandals, we are going to leave it like this.’ People who really should have been banned a long time ago are still working. I tell you, it’s an incredible thing.”
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