Forever Betis

China dropped

Understandably, Miki Roqué has completely dominated the Betis news agenda this week, but there have been one or two other stories as well. Let's scoot round them quickly...

l The players are due to return from their holidays next Thursday, when they'll learn that, as suggested a week ago, the much vaunted pre-season tour of China has been cancelled. Once the organisers defaulted on certain agreed payments - just as they had done to Premier League club Fulham - Betis were really left with no alternative but to withdraw. Instead, the first team squad will be training 60 miles down the road at the resort hotel Nuevo Portil near Huelva between July 9th and 19th, before heading off to two weeks in Bad Shönborg in Germany from July 27th. The only friendly confirmed so far is a game against Bundesliga club Freiburg on August 11th, but a couple more fixtures against German sides are likely to follow, with a trip to England also a possibility.

UPDATE: A friendly at another Bundesliga club, Hoffenheim, has just been arranged for 3pm on August 5th.

The collapse of the China adventure is a blow for the club's long-term aim of raising their profile in the Far East, but in some ways it's also a blessing in disguise. There had been some concerns about the gruelling heat and humidity the players were likely to face in China, not to mention the host of other unknowns, so staying closer to home will probably be regarded as something of a relief by players and backroom staff alike.

l There's no real new news on the transfer front, but Jefferson Montero has been officially unveiled by the Mexican club Monarcas Morelia. The €3.5million transfer fee paid to Villareal reportedly includes almost €200,000 due to Betis for their part in developing the Ecuatorian into the player he eventually became. The latest winger rumoured to have a chance of replacing Jeff is 23-year-old Real Madrid reserve Juanfran.

One other possible move that seems to be getting more likely by the day is that of Salva Sevilla to Real Zaragoza. Current Zaragoza boss Manolo Jiménez knows Salva from when he was coach at Sevilla and the midfielder was in the reserves and is said to be an admirer. All that remains now, the reports say, is for Betis to decide whether or not they want a transfer fee.

l Back to Miki Roqué and the club have announced that a memorial service for the central defender is to be held at the Benito Villamarín next Monday evening. No doubt there will be many tributes paid during the event, but I doubt any will be as eloquent and moving as the letter written by Miki's doctor - Dr Ricard Valdés Arribas, who also happens to be the brother of Barcelona goalkeeper Victor Valdés - and which was published on the Betis club website earlier this week. Entitled Sueño Cumplido (Dream Come True), it's in Spanish but I'm sure even Google Translate will give you an idea of the affection and respect Miki obviously inspired during the last year of his life.

Nor, as you can see from the photo on the right (from Diario de Sevilla), was Miki unforgotten among fans watching the Spain-Portugal game in Seville on Wednesday.

Just a minute

Usually it's only when they play Real Madrid or Barcelona that Betis attract worldwide publicity, but the the Miki Roqué story seems to have changed all that (at least temporarily). A Twitter campaign to persuade UEFA to stage a minute's silence before tonight's Spain-Portugal game has been the No.2 Trending Topic globally for most of the day and although this looks to have been unsuccessful, the Spanish players will wear black armbands in his memory (reportedly risking a €100,000 fine unless UEFA give their last-minute permission). (UPDATE: Which they just have.) Portuguese sub Miguel Lopes, who of course played alongside Miki in last year's Betis team, is also promising his own commemoration.

There may well be other tributes should Spain score and/or progress to the UEFA 2012 final tonight, but the prospect of that happening seems to have receded if we are to believe the just-released line-ups. Negredo?! As we all know, the lumpen Sevillista No. 9 isn't even the best striker in the city of Seville, let alone the whole of Spain. Rubén, where are you?

(Pic of an opportunist street seller in a Seville industrial park taken from the B5 bus this morning.)

Saying goodbye

Miki Roqué's passing continues to be hard to digest for the familia bética. The video below shows the informal gathering of 3,000 fans (and club officials, including Pepe Mel's No. 2, Roberto Rios, and Miki's former Betis B team-mate, Pozuelo) just outside the Benito Villamarín last night. You'll probably notice the significant Sevillista presence - in times of grief, as when Sevilla's 22-year-old defender Antonio Puerta died of a heart attack in 2007, the city's footballing rivalries are quickly forgotten.

The player's funeral was held in his hometown of Tremp today, attended by Miguel Guillén, Pepe Mel, Rafael Gordillo, doctor Tomas Calero, Sevilla president José María Del Nido, SFC sporting director Monchi, representatives from several other Primera clubs, Beñat, Cañas, Goitia, ex-Bético Arzu, Barcelona captain Carles Puyol and many hundreds more. You can see video footage here, although it's quite hard to watch. You can see more videos at videosdelbetis.com.

Finally, Yahoo! Sport's Andy Mitten has written a really nice article about Miki's Catalan upbringing, his time at Liverpool, and the heartfelt reaction to his death throughout Spanish football. Read it here.

 

Remembering Miki

By the time Miki Roqué made his Betis debut in Las Palmas on October 9th 2010, the 22-year-old had already had an adventure or two. Born and brought up in the Catalan town of Tremp (about 140 miles north-west of Barcelona), he joined Rafael Benitez's "Spanish Liverpool" aged just 17 and spent two and a half years in the north-west of England before returning to Spain on loan for a the next 18 months. He substituted Xabi Alonso in a Champions League game, played for Oldham Athletic and Xerez on loan, and then spent a whole season in the south-eastern port city of Cartagena helping guide the local team towards promotion to the Spanish second division. 

Released by Liverpool, in the summer of 2009 he signed for Real Betis to play in the B team alongside names like Beñat, Cañas and Pozuelo and so it wasn't until a year later - when new coach Pepe Mel actively started looking for young players to promote - that he was given a chance to show what he could do with the first team. Before long he was looking like a veteran in central defence and by Christmas he was already a firm favourite with the fans. Along with Beñat, he was a standard bearer for the new post-Lopera Betis - young, hungry, unstarry, competitive, homegrown (sort of), and talented. When a few hundred Béticos met the team at Santa Justa station after the Copa del Rey demolition of Getafe in January 2011, Miki was so swamped by well wishers (and so pleasantly obliging to them all) that he was easily the last player on the bus back to the team hotel. 

This is all worth bearing in mind when we remember him. Miki Roqué might only have made 12 Liga appearances for Betis and a handful more in the cup - it was shortly after the Getafe game that he began to experience the mysterious back pains that were eventually diagnosed as being caused by a cancerous growth - but most football fans know an exceptional player when they see one. His future was already beginning to map itself out: a couple of seasons in the Betis side before his first national team call-up (perhaps with Beñat last month); then club captain for a year or two before a well-deserved, no-hard-feelings multi-million euro move to Barcelona. He wasn't just an important part of an unexpectedly exciting Betis team, it was him as much as any player who seemed to represent the club's whole bright new dawn.

So it's not just mawkishness that's sending Béticos in their droves down to the Estadio Benito Villamarín to leave messages and tokens of their affection. Miki Roqué was genuinely a special young footballer and it seems unbearably sad that he should have lost his life at such a young age. His funeral is due to take place tomorrow in his home town, but already the Spanish national team - many of whom knew him well, either through Carlos Puyol, who was a close family friend, or from their time at Liverpool - have promised to remember him at their Euro 2012 semi-final on Wednesday, and Betis fans have been planning an informal gathering at the stadium tonight. All in all, it will be a long while before the city of Seville is its usual joyful self again.

Pics from the Correo de Andalucía's gallery of photos of the Benito Villamarín today

Miki Roqué dies

Talk about a shock. Five minutes before the end of the first half of the England-Italy game tonight, the commentators on Spanish TV announced that Betis central defender Miki Roqué had died from the cancer of the pelvis that forced him to stop playing in March of last year. He was two weeks short of his 24th birthday.

The news has come out of the blue, but in retrospect it probably wasn't so hard to work out that the prognosis wasn't good. There had been absolutely no news of his progress since he visited the team in their hotel before the Barcelona game in January, not even to mention that his contract was due for renewal next week. This was obviously not a good sign.

When talking about Miki I always like to make sure that we remember what a very good player he promised to be. Indeed, the very last thing I wrote about him here before he fell ill was that he was a future Spanish international and I remain convinced that would have been the case. It seems almost unbearably sad to think we'll never know. I'm sure you'll all join me in offering our sincere condolences to his family.

Miki's name was sung throughout the 26th minute of every home game last season and I have no doubt it will be for a long time to come. What terrible, terrible news.

 

Oh so quiet

Apologies if you've been turning up here all week expecting to find news about your favourite Spanish football team; the simple truth is that there hasn't been any. With the players not due back from their holidays until July 5th the transfer market has ground to a halt, and any rumours that do reach the newspapers - Altético Madrid bid for Beñat! Betis swoop for Shevchenko! - are usually found to be completely false within 24 hours. The one almost-news item floating around is that the pre-season stay in China is in some doubt after Fulham pulled out of the friendly tournament next month over money issues, but at the moment Betis are still planning to go. Meanwhile, the club's next big media event should be the launch of the new Macron kits some time in the next couple of weeks, although an exact date hasn't yet been finalised for that.

Of course, there is football being played in Europe right now, and Seville is enjoying Euro 2012 in its own low-key way. The odd Spanish flag can be seen hung from a balcony or flying on the back of a taxi, but even in super-patriotic Seville the national team's games are watched with a notch less fervour than the real thing in the Benito Villamarín or the Sánchez-Pizjuán. That said, the giant screen under the space-age Setas (Mushrooms) in Plaza Encarnacíon is apparently drawing crowds up to 5,000 for the Spain games - no mean feat when the temperatures at kick-off time can still be in the high 30s. And assuming around half of those present were Béticos, there must have been a collective sense of déjà vu during the Croatia game: so much possession, so little goalmouth action. All that 90 minutes needed was a preposterous last-minute Croatian winner and it would have been the autumn-2011 Betis to a T.

(Pics: top: Watching (or not) Euro 2012 outside at a bar in the Alameda de Hércules; bottom: Las Setas for Spain Italy from the Cadena Ser Radio Sevilla website)

Ranger emotions

Once in a while it dawns on you that being a professional footballer is not all three-hour working days and five-figure pay cheques. I discovered the Twitter account of Giselle Tavarelli, aka Mrs Roque Santa Cruz - full of sweet messages about how much she loves living in Seville alongside pictures of herself in her flamenco dress - at about the same time the story hit the internet that Queen's Park Rangers are trying to buy her husband has part of a job lot of Manchester City players. There's absolutely no doubt that Roque desperately wants to stay with Betis, and that Betis desperately want him to stay, but it might not be as simple as that. If City think they can make a few quid from him, then he hasn't got much choice in the matter - he either goes to west London or sits out the remaining year of his contract doing nothing (which I'm sure holds little appeal for a 30-year-old striker who knows what it's like to miss signiicant time with injuries). Betis haven't got the money in the bank to compete financially with the Premier League - even QPR - so unless this story is just another one of the many wild rumours floating on the wind just now, it's possible that the Santa Cruz family's dreams of returning to Seville are starting to fade.

Pic: Roque with his kids at Seville's Feria de Abril (from Mrs Roque's Twitter page)

A practical demonstration

I have a feeling that in 100 years' time June 15th 2009 will still be remembered as a special day in the history of Real Betis Balompié. That Monday evening, as I'm sure you'll be aware, an estimated 60,000 Béticos and Béticas took to the streets of Seville to protest against the increasingly autocratic and bizarre mismanagement of the club by its maximum shareholder Manuel Ruíz de Lopera. It was all some time before the forces of the law had started catching up with him, but the protesters didn't need a forensic accountants' report to know that he'd been up to no good. Betis had just been relegated, the club's infrastructure was a total mess and the future was unremittingly bleak.

I always say that the 15-J manifestación - as the demonstration is remembered here - will forever be my favourite event as a Bético (although Beñat's goal is obviously pushing it close right now). The atmosphere, despite the grim news surrounding the club at the time, was wonderfully celebratory; the sheer range of people attending had to be seen to be believed. There were grandparents, teenagers, toddlers, 20somethings, 30somethings, 40somethings (etc), ladies who looked like they'd stepped off the set of Sex In The City, old men with handmade signs, dogs, and even - get this - a smattering of Sevillistas. 

(If you want to relive the whole event, ABC de Sevilla today posted up a video of images from the day. My original report, written a month afterwards, can be found here.)

Happily, three years on, the landscape is very different. Betis are back in Primera, Lopera is barred from going anywhere near the stadium that no longer bears his name and all the personae non grata who can be seen in the video leading the rebellion have all been welcomed back into the fold. The current president is savvy enough to be able to sell the club in China and human enough to have been in Poland last night as just another Spain fan (from 0'5" to 0'12" on the video below). The club is striding forward into the 21st century - and it's hard not to feel that 15-J helped give it an important shove in the right direction.

(Top pic: That's me in the stripy T-shirt looking a bit bemused.)

 

Jeff off (and other stories)

With not much happening in the Betisphere right now - unless you count watching Spain tonight and marvelling at how much better Beñat is than Busquets - perhaps it's time for a quick recap on where the various transfer stories stand.

First of all, as promised the other day, Rubén Pérez (shown below leaving his medical in Seville on Monday) is definitely joining on loan from Atlético Madrid. He'll compete with Cañas for the defensive central midfield position, which seems to suggest that Iriney definitely won't be returning. There's no final word on where the latter is headed, but he has apparently had talks with Málaga (among others, I'd guess).

 

In central defence, Paulao has all but signed a permanent contract and is likely to be joined - surprisingly, perhaps - by the returning Mario. The pugnacious Canary Islander had an injury-hit first season in verdiblanco but the Betis doctors are convinced that a recent operation will have cured his muscle problems and what the English newspapers always call a pay-as-you-play contract (ie, the more games you start, the more money you earn) should limit the club's financial risk. It's true Mario looked decent at times, but he also managed to get himself sent off three times in 12 games, so there's certainly room for improvement. Pepe Mel is thought to want another left-sided central defender just in case.

Further forward, it's looking almost certain that Jefferson Montero will leave, possibly to Mexican club Monarcas Morelia, who are reportedly ready to pay Villareal €3.3million for his services. The reaction of most Béticos has been, "Mexico, Jeff?" but as the player's agent points out, "He's played there already a few years ago [for Dorados de Sinaloa when he was 18], so he's familiar with the country and knows the level is getting better all the time. The deal isn't signed yet, but he's happy with it." When all's said and done, they stumped up with the kind of money Betis simply can't afford.

Argentinian winger Franco Jara, who spent last season at Granada, on loan from Benfica, is a possible replacement for Montero, as is our old friend Ezequiel, who claims to have returned from his mostly unproductive loan spell at Sabadell an older and wiser 21-year-old. "I've matured a lot as a player and a person and I can't wait to get going again," he told ABC de Sevilla. "I want to start again from scratch and if I have a good pre-season then perhaps I'll be ble to stay." And that does seem to be Pepe Mel's deal with him: if he can impress the Betis coach in July and August he'll have a future with the club; if not, it's adios.

That's all for now. More updates when they become available.

Lopera accused of taking €36million from Betis

It's almost three years since 60,000 Béticos took to the streets of Seville to demonstrate against the stewardship of majority shareholder Manuel Ruíz de Lopera - and we're still only just finding out the full extent of the damage he might have done the club. Today the Seville edition of the El Mundo newspaper published details of the so-long-awaited-it's-become-almost-mythical second report by court officials into Lopera's financial management, revealing that he's alleged to have taken €24million out of Betis between 1999 and 2007. Add this to the €11million-plus that the first report, published a year ago, claimed he'd made off with in the seven previous years and you get a total possible fraud of around €36million - almost half the debt he left the club with. Experts say that if he were found guilty, he'd be in line for a fine of around €100million and a lengthy spell in prison.

If you're wondering how he did all this, it's thought mostly to have been by getting the club's employees and service-providers to contract themselves first to one of his private companies, so they could then be subcontracted to Betis (at a profit, naturally). (You'll probably remember, for example, the warehouse full of old Kappa shirts that he rented at above-market-rates to Betis, even though there were whole rooms of empty storage space in the stadium.) Indeed, Roque Santa Cruz's agent was so suspicious of the arrangements that he advised his client against signing for Lopera when the player first came over from Paraguay in 1999 and got him to join Bayern Munich instead.

It's worth pointing out that Lopera and his lawyers will no doubt deny the findings of the new report and produce more favourable figures of their own, so the case is likely to be tied up in court for many months to come. In addition, a private prosecution has recently been launched against Lopera by shareholders who claim that the initial purchase of his 51 per cent stake in Betis was achieved illegally, all of which means that the rather convenient ownership limbo that the club has found itself in since December 2010 looks set to be with us for the foreseeable future. One way or another, the club is in a place we could only dream about three years ago.