News: Club

As a follow-up to the statement released on 1 December in response to the accusations made during the last shareholders' meeting against members of the current SD Eibar board of directors in relation to the issuance of three contracts, I wish to make the club's shareholders, season-ticket holders and supporters aware of the steps current being taken in regard of this issue.

During the course of the aforementioned meeting, which was held on 24 November, a legal representative of nine of the club's shareholders queried the issuance of three contracts and their association with members of the SD Eibar board of directors.

A few days later, the club's Compliance Body, through the law firm Evershead Nicea, an international company specialising in compliance and which is external to the club, certified the correctness and legality of the three issued contracts, whilst a legal report concluded that no conflict of interests had arisen and, as such, that there was no violation of loyalty surrounding the issuance of the three aforementioned contracts.

In the ensuing period, the board instructed independent professionals, who are external to the club, to audit all of the contracts associated with board members issued over the past three years, as well as all of the expenses incurred by each of the board members during this period.

The conclusions of this report will be made available to the public, in complete transparency and in full detail.

Likewise, in the days following the shareholders' meeting, I sent certified faxes to the nine shareholders represented by the lawyer who questioned the three aforementioned contracts, to ask how they had obtained the confidential information which was brought to light.

There is no doubt that all of the club's shareholders have the right to request in-depth information about the club's operations, however, there are legal channels which have not been respected in this instance.

Accordingly, it is the board's duty to find out who was responsible for violating the specific prohibition to leak confidential information.

The board cannot allow information belonging to the club to illegally be released because this practice serves to weaken and proves detrimental to the institution. This does not impinge on the shareholders' right to information, a right which this board of directors has always scrupulously respected and shall continue to do so in the future.

The shareholders who replied to the certified fax indicated in their responses that they were unaware what their proxy was going to be used for. Subsequently, a second certified fax was sent to those shareholders who failed to reply to the first one, reiterating the request for information.

The group of nine shareholders who issued proxies, which includes a minor - who is indeed the only one of the nine who is from Eibar - hail from different countries and own a total of 31 shares between them.

This board of directors has defended and shall continue to defend the right for shareholders to have access to all club-related information. However, the board cannot allow important information to be released into the public domain by underhand means.

I must stress that our duty in terms of transparency in relation to the issuance of contracts involves providing information at the shareholders' meeting about the price that a service has been contracted for, but not to specify the process or the negotiations involved up until the signing of a contract.

Within the complete transparency policy which we seek to uphold, we shall continue to provide information about each of the steps taken in relation to this issue and make ourselves available to all of the shareholders, to respond to the queries and suggestions that they want to put forward.

I wish to take this opportunity to send my best wishes to the whole Eibar family in the hope that we all enjoy a 2017 full of success and satisfaction both on the field and in our personal lives.