Athletic Club’s Statutes Reform: Everyone’s challenge, a challenge for all

Athletic’s current Board of directors is determined on undertaking a deep regeneration and modernization process of the Club, on all areas.

That was an assumed commitment since the presentation of its project during the electoral period, later ratified at the assumption of office and in the many appearances before the Assembly of Associates that the Board of directors have held since the beginning of its term in office.

Additionally, that determination has been reflected in multiple initiatives and decisions made in the last fourteen months. Some of which may have seemed more or less wise to members and Biscayan society as a whole, others may not have seemed so right, and perhaps some, or many of them, dangerous or clearly erroneous. But what cannot be questioned is that the measures taken by the Board have only been encouraged by that regenerative and innovative impulse of the organization, and always with the aspiration and will of achieving, step by step, a Club that is more modern, more effective, more transparent, more participatory and, all in all, more prepared to compete on all scopes, from the sporting to the economic or the institutional, with greater possibilities of success.

Often, making that journey has demanded facing the reality of a situation with crudity and adopting difficult measures. However, that is precisely what most occasions consist of, the fulfilment of management responsibilities in any organization or institution. If we combined that evidence with the tremendous media and public importance that is acquired by any decision or initiative adopted by Athletic, we can possibly understand even better the effort demanded of all the Board of Directors members of firmly maintaining the course undertaken.

Within that general reconstruction of the Club, one of the commitments that were clearly assumed was to bring about a reform process of the fundamental policies by which it is governed. The diagnosis seems shared by a majority in the sense that these regulations are obsolete with regards to their fundamental wording, and, certainly, they have generated absolutely inconvenient and vitiate practices precisely with regards to substantial elements of member participation in the management and administration of the Club. They are, on the other hand, policies that are practically, in the case of the present Statutes, ten years old, and possibly even more, as is the case of the electoral policies which are dispersed and not always equipped with the sufficient level and publicity. Therefore, above mentioned diagnosis is based on the long experience of application of such.

Therefore, the Board of directors has decided to include in the Assembly Agenda to be held next Wednesday, the opening of the reform process of the Club Statutes. With this, it is not only faithful to the regenerative impulse that encourages it, but is also fulfilling an express and specific commitment formulated before all the members.

The procedure of statutory modification is possibly not known by all members and fans, and we have tried to transmit, on the basis of that lack of knowledge, a certain halo of doubt with respect to the aspirations of the Board of directors at the time of undertaking it.

Well then, emphatically, as President of the Athletic Club Board of directors I certify that it is not going to play either a leadership role nor give a determined slant to the reform process that is being proposed. The members of the Board will participate in the process as any other member, individually, if that is their wish, but, collectively, as collegiate body of the Club, the Board is going to relinquish any role that could be due to it in the process.

According to the current Statutes, the reform procedure begins with the voting that is going to take place next Wednesday at Euskalduna Palace in Bilbao. If a simple majority of associate members present so decide, the Statutes modification process will be opened.

Then, a Commission will be formed which will be the one in charge of leading and directing the process, and of formulating a specific modification proposal. Two members of that Commission will have to be designated by the Assembly of Delegates. Another two, will be designated by the Board of directors, and a fifth one, by statutory mandate, the President of the Club. Some have said that this composition would automatically grant the current Board the possibility of influencing the process. Regardless of what might have been the intentions of the editors of the current Statutes, what is certain is that those regulations are unavoidable, whether we like it or not.

Nevertheless, it is the intention of this Board of Directors that a Drafting Commission be created of a noticeably independent and institutional character, integrated by prestigious people, of impeccable professional experience, and of rooted Athletic sentiment, among which are jurists of acknowledged competence and aptitude, along with people who either because of their professional or institutional contribution to Athletic and the whole of Biscayan soccer, conjugate a suitable combination of technical competitiveness with a deep knowledge of the idiosyncrasy of our Club, openness and proximity to the members, and the capacity to lead such a delicate process as the one being undertaken.

For that reason, the Board of directors, against what has been said, will propose the Assembly the designation on their part of two people of indisputable experience in Athletic and Biscayan soccer, as members of the cited Commission, and will directly designate, because statutorily it must make the designations, only for that reason, two jurists of the highest professional prestige, to join the same. All of them, of course, people of great common sense, sensible, and absolutely not susceptible to being, as far as the formation and expression of their criterion or opinions, influenced by anyone. They must have the disposition and receptive capacity to channel the constructive participation of members, reliable, but also absolutely and radically independent with respect to anyone. Finally, the president of the Club will join the Commission, but only because statutorily it is not possible to create it without him, because if the minimum possibility existed, he would not be part of the same.

Once the Commission is created, a new phase will be initiated, open to all members, in which anyone of these can present their proposals. On the basis of these proposals and in accordance with their criterion, the Commission will have to draft and present an articulated text of reform or modification of the Statutes that will be publicly informed before the celebration of the Extraordinary Assembly Meeting of Delegates at which it will be voted on. At the time of opening to suggestions by members, I won’t hide it, those of us that are part of the Board of directors – I insist, as individual members and from our point of view- will make our contributions to the Commission as they are known, and with a view to modify, at least, radically, the designation of the delegate system and the electoral process, especially to change the endorsement system for candidates, and to shorten the terms of the election system for president, and all this always within the limits imposed by the applicable legislation.

At the Extraordinary Assembly Meeting that closes the statutory reform procedure, the favourable vote of two thirds of the attending delegates is required for the proposal to be approved. According to the provision contained in the current Statutes, by decision of the Board of directors, the voting in this Extraordinary Assembly will be nominal and public.

Therefore, we are faced with a process in which the Assembly of Delegates, as a sovereign body of the Club, has to assume and exercise its responsibility, and in which a member that wants to contribute his/her proposals or suggestions for their incorporation into the new Statutes, has ample channels to be able to participate in the reform project.

The composition that the Commission is expected to take guarantees, in any case, that the process is going to be governed by criteria of independence, transparency, professional and personal competence, and, in addition, all this with ample doses of institutional sense and common sense, both so very necessary for coping with the life, often so convulsive, of our dear Athletic, and so missed on so many occasions.

The challenge for Athletic as an organization is on the table. Without a doubt, the whole of Biscayan society is going to follow the debate that is going to be opened with much interest. I am sure that all levels of the Club and all of us that personally integrated it, from delegates to directors, members, and its professional staff, are going to know how to rise to the occasion as, without a doubt, are going to be all the fans that enthusiastically follow whatever concerns the Club, or the media that, as always, will know how to responsibly channel the media’s impact on such a delicate process as the one to be opened that, on the other hand, would be absolutely unnatural if it did not count on the ample and plural participation by all the members of the Club.

Personally, I encourage everyone to participate in this process that is for each and every one of us, and should serve to lay the institutional foundations of a better, more participative, more opened, and more democratic Athletic in future.

Fernando García Macua
President of Athletic Club