BlueBay takes control of company behind 97 per cent of Malaga CF shares

During the meeting, Jamal Satli and Javier García Recio were appointed to run NAS Spain, the company jointly owned by BlueBay (49 per cent) and ousted president Sheikh Abdullah Al-Thani, who owns the remaining 51 per cent. No representative of the Al-Thani family attended Tuesday’s meeting.

The change means Satli and García Recio will now run NAS Spain rather than club administrator José María Muñoz, who had been appointed by the courts to manage the company.

However, this does not mean that Muñoz has immediately lost control of the football club's shares. He remains the court-appointed administrator of the club and retains the voting rights attached to NAS Spain’s almost 97 per cent stake in Malaga.

José Carlos Aguilera, the lawyer representing BlueBay, said the process of ending NAS Spain's court administration would now begin. The change must first be registered with the Mercantile Registry and published in its official bulletin.

Once that has happened, Aguilera said BlueBay would look to call a general meeting of Malaga CF to appoint a new board. He also said the company could propose a capital increase to provide the club with additional funds.

“I think the countdown has begun for Malaga CF to return to normality and to be a club managed and administered by professionals and its owners,” Aguilera said.

Satli said the development was an important step after more than a decade of legal disputes over the club’s ownership.

“Today, after 13 years, during which we’ve suffered more than you can imagine, we’re one step closer,” he said.

Satli also repeated his intention to invest 600 million euros in the club, although any future investment would depend on resolving the ownership and management situation.

“What we want is a project that moves forward,” he said, adding that the club needed a stronger financial foundation.

Satli also criticised the current plans for a new La Rosaleda stadium on land linked to the University of Malaga. He said he believed private investors rather than public institutions should play a greater role in financing the project.

“We’ll open up the possibility for many people from Malaga to get involved through different formulas,” he said. “This project is the greatest ambition of my life and, of course, they’ll have to drag me out kicking and screaming to stop me achieving it.”