ALICANTE. Elche’s relegation to the Second Division, completed today after the defeat in Almería, is the first setback for the entity’s owner, Argentine businessman Christian Bragarnik, since he arrived in December 2019.
Since the Argentine businessman took control of the club, Elche has lived a golden period with promotion to the First Division and two stays in the top flight, so the loss of the category for the next campaign is a big sporting and economic blow for his management.
Bragarnik landed in Elche in the 2019/20 season, but he stayed in the background and away from daily life and management in a season, interrupted by the pandemic, which ended with the unexpected promotion of Girona.
After the First jump, Argentina has already taken control of all the schemes of the entity. In administrative and bureaucratic management, he chose the people he trusted the most and in sports matters he began to make decisions, such as the departure of José Rojo ‘Pacheta’, the coach who took the team from Second B to First, for Jorge. Almiron.
The Elche squad began to be filled with Argentine and South American players who arrived with the endorsement of the owner and the team, after a change of direction at the beginning of the second round, he reached the end alive and saved himself with a Carambola in the last the day
The businessman, who is already in charge of all areas of the club, also came out successfully in his second season in the First Division despite betting on players like Javier Pastore or Darío Benedetto, who went through more pain than glory for the club.
The team, after a new change in the bench, reacted to a bad start and achieved permanence in an unlikely way.
Parallel to his sporting success, the Argentine began to draw the main lines of the future with ambitious economic and social projects, such as the purchase of land for the construction of a sports city or the renovation and improvement of the Martínez Valero stadium.
However, when the team seemed to consolidate in the First Division, the sporting accident came with the first criticism of his management by the fans.
The Martínez Valero stands have heard cries of “Bragarnik go now” on more than one occasion this season.
In addition, he also censored, in parallel, a certain institutional coldness in the centenary event of the club and an increased distance from the club, but not from the team, and its social masses.
The businessman, little appearing in front of the media, has already apologized through the social networks in January for the sports management of this season and supposed mistakes.
Also once the relegation ended, the club apologized to the fans and showed its firm intention to keep the project started and return to the First Division as soon as possible under the guidance of coach Sebastián Beccacece, his new bet for the bench. .
