Josu Urrutia: Athletic Club's New President

The Challenger defeats the Incumbent and Josu Urrutia becomes Athletic Club's 31st President after beating Fernando García Macua in the Summer Elections of 2011.

This particular campaign had a definitive political component, both candidates got support from different government/enterprise sides and in the media there was more interest about the coach signing and the future of San Mamés Barria (the new stadium) than on the projects each candidate was presenting.

Also there were calls of foul play, specially since Macua was called in a tax evasion process about town-planning in Barakaldo (my hometown), many people said that the timing for those accusations to show was too coincidental with the elections and that Urrutia's team was behind it, nothing was proven.

Urrutia had gotten more signatures to support his candidature so he was a slight favorite but most polls declared a technical tie and that the people who still hadn't decided who to vote for will turn the election around.

These last days, many Athletic associates received phone calls and letters asking to vote for one or other candidate, that is a matter for concern because only the club has the database for all that private data and many of us weren't exactly happy about it, it was considered an intrusion.

As usual, the election day was tranquil and no incident happened, at morning hundreds of people got in line to vote at the Ibaigane Palace which is Athletic's administrative HQ.

One of the problems faced by the elections was the fact that you cannot vote by mail if you're outside of the Bilbao area during them, you have to go and sign something at the HQ to be able to send your vote later, it is not fair for many of us who are living outside of Spain and that's one of the suggestions we have for the next elections.

My family did vote, all of us are socios and have always been active in the club (a couple of my nephews are playing at the Alevín categories) and were really interested in the future, what could happen now since the team is in its best moment since we ended up second in la Liga in the 97-98 season, we now have the tools and the players to get farther up and have great expectatives about this team.

Josu has to deal with the pressure, because Athletic is a team that utterly belongs to the fans and we are very vocal when things don't go the way we want to, he has to take the reigns of one of Spain's biggest clubs without administrative experience, one of the best youth systems in the country and will have to lead the way in the construction of the new stadium, he has to be very careful there because the money involved is big so both the Government (who's paying for most of it) and sponsors like Petronor will be checking his every move.

He's already made his first bold move by bringing the first non-European coach to the club: Marcelo Bielsa; many of us are on the fence about it because we can't say if he's gonna fit the club, he won't have the same freedom to choose as other coaches do since we don't sign foreigners or people who haven't spend time in Basque youth systems, I think we have a very balanced squad, specially now that Ander Herrera is up, all we need is to get a decent left back (I wanted Monreal but the Anti-Athletic clause made him unattainable by the club) and maybe get Aduriz back so Llorente can have some rest, he's been playing all the matches in all the competitions so his body is usually spent at the end of the season.

Bielsa plays with a 3-1-3-3 formation, so I think we might get something like this as starting XI:

Gorka Iraizoz as GK

Andoni Iraola - Borja Ekiza - Fernando Amorebieta in the back

Carlos Gurpegui/Pablo Orbaiz as pivot

David López - Javi Martínez - Ander Herrera as midfielders

Gaizka Toquero - Fernando Llorente - Iker Muniain in the attacking line

I loved Josu as a player and I hope he's as dedicated as President as he was when he was wearing the club's colors.

Aupa Athletic!!