The unheard megaphone of a bleeding giant
Disappointment is massive at Mestalla as Valencia CF supporters are desperate to see Peter Lim leave the club
It doesn’t make sense. That’s the main thinking among the vast majority of Valencia CF fans when analyzing the decisions Peter Lim has made since his arrival in 2014. The last victim of the painful journey is Genaro Gatusso, who didn’t want to continue as head coach after feeling betrayed by the board during the January transfer window.
Eight years after he decided to purchase the club, Mestalla’s dugout has seen eleven different managers, the club has gone from 8th to 44th in UEFA ranking and is no longer fighting for titles but to avoid relegation.
That’s his legacy at the club, but it’s doubtful that he cares about it while enjoying life from his luxury mansion in Singapore, 14,504 kilometers away from Valencia.
A shady business
The Singaporean billionaire, ranked 1,292 in the Forbes List and holding a $2,9 billion fortune, is carrying Spain’s fourth biggest club to the edge of the precipice. But that’s not important for him, as his only interest is keeping as much money as possible from the commissions on each player’s sale. That’s why he refuses to put the club up for sale despite the damage he is causing.
The 69-year-old works hand in hand with his close friend and the world’s most famous football agent, Jorge Mendes. Together, they have created a network that is mutually advantageous but is destroying an historic club. Lim aims to sell the best Valencia CF players almost every summer and Mendes helps him bring the offers to the highest bidder.
Since 2014, Valencia CF’s total transfer business (incomings and outgoings) equates to €1.08 billion, with deals involving Jorge Mendes accounting for €311 million of that total.
What it seemed… but never was
The businessman had a warm welcome in the surroundings of Mestalla when he purchased the club back in 2014. He paid 94 million euros and allowed the side to escape a perilous situation due to financial problems.
He promised the Bats wouldn’t have to sell their best players anymore and his aim was to see the team fighting among the top sides every season.
Now, eight years after his arrival, there is no doubt he lied to everyone about the goals he wanted to achieve in Valencia. But there were two victims who trusted him and led the process of the sale: Amadeo Salvo (former Valencia CF’s President) and Aurelio Martínez (former Valencia CF’s Foundation President). The silence both have kept since then suggests that they are ashamed and feel guilty about the nightmare their childhood side has experienced over the last few years.
Lim’s journey at the club started in a promising way, as in his first season the Chés qualified for the Champions League reaching their highest number of points in LaLiga (77). However, in the following two campaigns the team placed 12th in the table.
In the 2016/17 season, the billionaire made what is arguably his best decision as Valencia CF owner, hiring Mateu Alemany as sporting director and Marcelino as coach.
The team qualified for the Champions League twice in a row and won the Copa del Rey against Messi’s FC Barcelona. Despite this, after the end of the season he blew up the project, sacking both because they didn’t want to follow his orders regarding which players the club should sign to continue competing at the top level.
This shocking decision was motivated by the former President, Anil Murthy, considered by fans, media and some Valencia CF legends as one of the worst ever to represent the club in the directors box. He didn’t have a good relationship with Marcelino and Alemany after a difficult first part of the 2018/19 campaign. Among many of his insensitive actions, he told the fans at Mestalla to shut up while they were protesting during a game, banned journalists that criticized the board and made jokes about the club on his social media.
Since that summer of 2019, it seems the billionaire has become increasingly tired of being involved in the club. Then, with COVID-19 he found the best way to stop funding the team, using the convenient excuse of the pandemic’s financial impact to turn off the investment tap.
Irrefutable evidence of this was provided by his daughter, the influencer Kim Lim. She uploaded the following photo on Instagram on 2 July 2020 after fans criticized her father due to a poor end of the season:
In recent years, the club has sold its best players in every transfer window. Daniel Parejo, Kondogbia, Francis Coquelin, Rodrigo, Carlos Soler, Ferran Torres and Gonçalo Guedes are the main examples of a huge list of talented footballers that have abandoned Valencia to continue their careers elsewhere.
According to the board, the reasons for the loss of quality in the squad over the past seasons lie in failing to qualify for European competitions and the economic problems that scenario causes.
It seems that after receiving more than €200 millions in transfers in recent years, they can’t design a team capable of fighting for a more ambitious goal than avoiding relegation.
‘Lim Go Home’
The club’s policy has fed the desire of fans to protest against a situation that is making the club smaller as years goes by. They are tired of seeing how their side is being decapitalized by an owner that a few years ago confessed to the Financial Times that the purchase of the club allows him to “do networking”.
With Gatusso leaving due to a January transfer window without signings despite being promised the team would be improved, supporters are organizing huge protests for 11 February at Mestalla before the Blanquinegres face Athletic Club in LaLiga.
Those types of actions, together with their impact on international newspapers, seem to be the only way to hurt the billionaire.
The best example of this was seen on the final day of last season, when the Valencianistas decided to leave Mestalla empty while their team was playing an irrelevant match against Celta de Vigo. The images shocked the sporting world and demonstrated a way of fighting against one of the worst sports club managements on the planet.
Days after, the Singaporean decided to sack the former board led by Anil Murthy, a fact that demonstrates the only way to get his attention is by damaging his reputation in the international context.
A lying machine
The lack of empathy with the black-and-white fans increases every year, not only from Peter Lim but also his representatives at the club. It seems that they enjoy the pain of others while receiving huge wages each month to justify being part of a circus that is on course to run out of clowns.
That’s why the current President, Lay Hoon Chan, doesn’t hesitate during every press conference where she lies without fear. She even confirmed back in the summer of 2016 that former striker and captain Paco Alcácer was not for sale, but two weeks later he was at Camp Nou wearing FC Barcelona’s colors.
She once said “I’m Peter Lim” when the media asked her about the fact that the owner is hardly ever seen in Valencia. Now those words make everything understandable.
Lim’s other puppet at Valencia is Miguel Ángel Corona, sporting director of the club since 2020. After three years in charge, most of his signings have been loans as the club has only spent money on the owner’s choices. Moreover, he said a month ago that the team didn’t have a major shortage in any position.
Now, with Valencia placed in the relegation zone, his words couldn’t have aged any worse.
That’s why Borja Reus, unconditional Valencia CF supporter, went to the club’s offices to ask him for answers with a megaphone as the news broke that the club would not be making any January signings:
Sources: À Punt Esports and El Desmarque VCF. Subtitled by Sports Gazette.
“I was playing FIFA at home when I saw my opponent had a username related to Tiémoué Bakayoko. I got upset because that reminded me of the rumors that placed the French footballer in our club during this transfer window. After noticing we were not going to sign anyone , I left home, bought a megaphone and went to the offices to see if Corona would answer my questions. Nobody came out to speak with me after spending three hours there.
Corona is a scoundrel (caradura in Spanish). He earns €15,000 per month. I would like to have a chat and ask him: What are you doing here?
I’m not going to be a season ticket holder next season. And from 11 February onwards, my seat at Mestalla will be empty. I feel disgusted by what they are doing to my club, Lim has converted it into his personal plaything”, he told Sports Gazette.
It will rise from its ashes
Nobody in the city knows how much longer the pain will go on, but one day Peter Lim’s time at the club will come to an end and the Chés will be there to catch it and lift it back to its rightful place.
103 years of history have seen Valencia CF with its ups and downs. From being relegated to winning leagues, from losing two Champions League finals in a row to being the world’s best club. And without doubt escaping the grasp of a man blinded by money to a promising future, albeit one that is difficult to see now.
Because, if one thing is certain about the future, it’s that opponents will again balk at the sight of the Mediterranean Pirates sailing the European seas, defending the Senyera with honor in every stadium as they claim their rightful place among giants.
