Miguel Ángel Gil: “We will have done something well in Europe to be above Barça”
Miguel Angel GilCEO of Atlético de Madrid, participated in the Sports Summit México, one of the most important events in the sports industry. The 2024 edition took place at the hotel Westin Santa Fe Mexico City on July 3 and 4. It brings together prominent industry leaders, among whom this year stand out Miguel Ángel Gil, Javier TebasMauricio Sulaimán (President, WORLD BOXING COUNCIL), Arturo Olivé (Managing Director, NFL México), Jimena Saldaña de Aja (General Secretary, PANAM SPORTS), Ángel Fernández Fernández (Global Brand Director, LALIGA), José María Del Nido Carrasco ( President, SEVILLA FC), Gina Jesús Cervantes (Marketing Director, MLB) or Juan Sebastián Verón (former soccer player and President, CLUB ESTUDIATES DE LA PLATA).
There have been more 5,000 attendees in these two days from more than 50 countrieswith the participation of more thanand 200 companies, 150 clubs, 100 leagues and sports competitions and with more than 300 accredited journalists from 100 media outlets.
Gil Marín values growth
Miguel Ángel Gil participated in a talk, ‘How Atlético de Madrid built a top ten brand in global football and his view of the future of Mexican football’, in which he made a presentation about the growth of the red and white club in recent years. “In the 2009/2010 season, when we won the first title in the last 14 years, we had 90 million euros in income. In this season that has already started, we are around 460-465 million euros in income without sales of players. That means that we have been growing solidly year after year,” commented the athletic CEO.
Miguel Ángel added that “stability and growth have also allowed us to leave Spain. We have been in India for a long time and now we are back. We have been in China. We are in Canada. We have the Atlético de San Luis franchise here in Mexicoor, that we bought in the Second Division and promoted it.”
Atlético lays the first stone in the Sports City that will be ready by 2026
He also made a special mention of the club’s great project, the City of Sports, pointing out that “since our stadium is located in the middle of a very large plot of 115 hectares, it gave us the opportunity to propose to the Madrid City Council to develop a complex, an entire city, both in terms of alternative sports and leisure. We have closed the agreement with the City Council some time ago and now we are carrying out the works.I believe that we are going to be the first club in the world that can have the same plot of land of a series of infrastructures that, today, no one has, because it is not just a stadium, restaurants, musical activities, not even just a high-performance center, but it is much more. We are going to create a city of leisure and sports around a football club to show the world that a football club can give people more than 90 minutes of football. Who can come? All. It is not made exclusively for athletes or for the residents of the district. “It is made for everyone who wants to enjoy leisure and sports.”
He also highlighted the competitiveness of the first team in these years: “Atlético de Madrid is going to compete this year in the Club World Cup due to its coefficient over the last 10 years. We are above Barcelona. We will have done something well in Europe to be above Barça“.
And in a second part, he spoke with journalist Óscar Guzmán, from Fox Sports, about the different functions he performs in the organizations of which he is a part, such as vice president of LaLiga, member of the Board and ExCo of the European Club Association (ECA), member of the ExCo of UEFA and the Board of the Joint Venture between FIFA and ECA.
