LIGA MX
Billy Álvarez: “At the moment Cruz Azul is a ship without a rudder”
In an interview with David Faitelson, the former owner and still board member of Cruz Azul stated that he does not follow the team, although he keeps an eye on the general table.
Guillermo “Billy” Álvarez ceased to be the president of Cruz Azul after an arrest warrant was issued for him in 2020. After running the club for more than thirty years, Alvarez subsequently went into hiding and is currently wanted by Interpol in 195 countries on various crimes including multiple accounts of racketeering, money laundering, and extortion.
The 78-year-old briefly came out of hiding to speak to Mexican journalist David Faitelson for an online interview and offered his view on the current state of affairs at ‘La Maquina’ and vehemently denied any accusations that he oversaw rigged games in his time as Cruz Azul owner.
During the interview, Alvarez reflected on the controversy after the elimination of Cruz Azul in the Guardianes 2020 in the semi-final games with Pumas, when the university side overcame a four goal margin to progres. At that time, Héctor Huerta, commentator for ESPN, said on the air that players had received suspicious calls, which generated a wave of speculation about whether they had been told to throw the game. Later, Huerta himself came out to say that what he had said was misunderstood.
Alvarez observed: “How we lost that semi-final to Pumas created talk that we had sold the game. It’s so easy for the media to slander, and that’s what some in the media like, to create mayhem in order to sell”, he added.
'Billy' doesn't watch Cruz Azul's games
‘La Maquina’ currently languish in second last position in the Apertura 2023 table and ‘Billy’ stated that he doesn’t want to or watch Cruz Azul games, but he does keep an eye on the general table.
“I have not been able, nor have I wanted to watch the games, but what is inevitable is to see the dire situation from the table. Numbers do not lie and there is so much imbalance in the team. We were a team that lost finals, yes, but we were not a weak team. That team has been broken up and for any club to do well it needs a solid backbone,” he highlighted.