President’s press conference

Athletic Club President, Fernando García Macua, offered a press conference on Thursday, 14 May at the Hilton hotel in Valencia. The president wanted to show his gratitude to all the fans, “who had behaved in a role-model manner and to the team who give it their all against a great team like Barcelona. We lost the match, but we have gained self-esteem, and we had told the world that Athletic is here and that there’s a different model and a distinct way of understanding the sport of football, win or lose. Despite the defeat we have to take advantage of this turning point, as a result of playing in the final, and take a giant step ahead as an entity. The support of the new red-white generations must be well-managed”.

He added that “we’ll make a further assessment of the organizational aspects. I do think that Athletic Hiria had a great acceptance, that no incidents worth mentioning were registered and that our supporters seemed to be satisfied there. There are people from the club who have already returned to Bilbao and it’s very likely that tomorrow at 19:30 there’ll be some receptions at Regional Council HQ and Town Hall. We’ll advise everyone of this in advance”.