Valencia CF held a working meeting with the Valencia City Council on Friday, to continue advancing in the process that will allow the completion of work on the Nuevo Mestalla stadium.

President of Valencia CF, Layhoon Chan, together with Corporate Director, Javier Solís, Financial Director, Inma Ibáñez, Director of Marketing, Jorge García, and Director of Operations, Cristhian Schneider, attended Valencia City Hall for a meeting with the mayor of Valencia, Joan Ribó, Vice-mayor, Sandra Gómez and Councillor for Public Spaces, Lucía Beamud.

In the meeting, Valencia CF presented a response to the proposed agreement offered by the Valencia City Council, with the confidence that it will be a decisive step to resume work at the Nuevo Mestalla.

Speaking after the meeting, Mr. Solis explained that:

“The feeling is positive because today we basically focused on two aspects: The management and the agreement itself with the comments that we have raised to the City Council. Regarding the management records, there is an agreement and it is a very important step -the first that had to be taken- and regarding the Agreement we have presented the best version that the club could present, with comments full of coherence and common sense and seeking to provide certainty in a project as big as the Nuevo Mestalla."

“The feeling is positive because we believe that with what we have presented, the Valencia City Council should accept and seal the agreement once and for all. It could have been signed today, although with it having been presented it is normal for there to be a period for studying it for the City Council. We have followed the same process that they followed. We wanted to come here and present the project, explain it to the whole team and leave a copy. Now it is normal that they need a few days to read it.

“The agreement that we propose includes the important points that have always been on the table. We propose a stadium with a capacity of 70,000 seats, with a starting amount of 66,000 fixed and 4,000 temporary, which essentially meets what the City Council requests and thus allows us to have the peculiarity of the terraces in the stadium, which is an important thing for the city. It also includes the guarantees and precautions requested by the City Council on the tertiary businesses and the sale of the Nuevo Mestalla tertiary. We have also deposited the amount for the Sports Centre with a cost of 8.1 million euros for the club, as well as the valuation of the archaeological remains found on the land, and regarding the Nuevo Mestalla, the guarantee that these may be used by Valencia CF once the stadium is finished."

"The club have raised the amount for the cost of the Sports Centre from 5.7 to 8.1 million euros, in what was strictly a VAT issue. It will be the technicians who will have to indicate how the VAT applies in this case."

"The deadlines for approval of the Agreement depend on the City Council, because they have received the draft and it is a question for them. As soon as they send us their comments we will evaluate them, but I think that this process has reached a speed that cannot be stopped."

“We must talk about the uses of the Nuevo Mestalla, and we want it to be specified. It has been stated that the stadium is available for use for athletics events, and that is why the method of setting up the athletics track within the first ring of seats has been offered, and the City Council has to specify what it refers to by these other uses. We do not see impediments to holding other events as long as an agreement is reached and it does not harm the sporting activity."

"We would like to thank all the people who came to Mestalla last night, to give incredible support to the team. It's a pity that we are not in the semifinals of the Copa del Rey. The club, the coach, the squad and the staff all have the same objective of returning to winning ways, which is what this club deserves."