The president of Mexican business group Orlegi Sports, Alejandro Irarragorri, has confirmed they were close to buying a Premier League club last year.
Orlegi Sports own several clubs around the world, and this summer completed a takeover of Mexican side Atlas F.C.
Before that purchase went through, they were strongly linked with taking over a Premier League side, with Newcastle United regularly named as the club they were interested in.
Indeed, around the time that the purchase of Atlas was completed, Fox Sports journalist Gustavo Mendoza confirmed on Twitter that Newcastle were the club they were looking at.
ORLEGUI!!!
Alejandro Irarragorri deja se ser presidente de @ClubSantos para ser presidente del grupo @Orlegi_Sports
Son dueños de Santos Laguna, @atlasfc y Tampico.
Convenio con La Equidad de Colombia a quien pronto compraran y quieren al @NUFC — Gustavo Mendoza 👁️ (@GusMenFox) May 5, 2019
That was also confirmed in England, with Chronicle Live reporting that sources close to the group had told them they were ‘investigating the possibility’ of buying Newcastle from Mike Ashley.
It appears that deal was closer to completion than anyone realised, though, with Irarragorri confirming they were close to getting a deal done.
“We were completely looking towards Europe,” he told ESPN.
“Last year, we were very close to achieving a purchase in the Premier League. Our group was not of sufficient size to proceed with that purchase.
“We ended the contract with Azteca, and at that time, I went to eat with Ricardo Salinas to thank him. In that, he offers me to sell myself to the Atlas and then we understood this as a great opportunity.
“Although I am not a supporter of timeshare, I understand that timeshare is part of the process of modernisation of Mexican football.”
