The Puerto Sagunto Handball Defence Platform delivers 8,042 reasons to Alfredo Castelló to keep the club in the elite

Representatives of the Puerto Sagunto Handball Defence Platform handed Sagunto Mayor Alfredo Castelló, who was accompanied by the Councillor responsible for Sport, Sergio Muniesa, the 8,042 signatures collected during the first month of the public campaign to keep the club in the elite. The delegation consisted of its president, Juan José Bataller, and vice-president, Carlos Argente; Julián Castelblanque, the leading representative of Alser, S.L., the main sponsor; and other platform members, specifically former city mayor José García Felipe, former councillor and former club director Manuel Sanz, architect Francisco Ribelles, journalist Nacho Belzunces and former president of the Sagunto Fallera Board, Miguel Ángel Alegría Albiñana.

The signature-collection campaign, which remains fully active, has completed its first month. Given the limited time available to guarantee the club’s survival in the elite, the platform’s representatives decided that the time had come to show the Mayor the first 8,042 signatures, which, in the words of Alser’s vice-president for communications, Carlos Argente, “are 8,042 reasons not to look the other way. The majority support for the motion defending the club at the plenary session has now been joined by 8,042 voices from local residents, demonstrating Handball Puerto Sagunto’s deep social roots in the city. Although I know the comparison is not like-for-like, consider this: in one month of campaigning, almost entirely by word of mouth, without petition tables around the city and without major media fanfare, we have collected more signatures than the votes received by every party except the PP in the last municipal elections. Fifteen per cent of the city’s population has already signed, and this is not over. In fact, in the two days since the signatures were bound until today, we have already received a further 120 signatures that have not been handed to the Mayor. I call on everyone who has not yet signed to do so; 61 years of social roots must continue in the elite.”

 During the meeting, they discussed the club’s situation, and the Mayor informed them about the series of meetings he is holding with companies and institutions to secure financial support. According to the City Council’s Communications Office, Alfredo Castelló stated that: “We have informed them about the contacts I am making to find sponsors and partners. They have the support of the full Council, and we are carrying out every measure within our power, although it is also true that the economic situation facing companies and public administrations is difficult. Nevertheless, we are awaiting their response and hope it will be positive.”

In this race against time and the general economic crisis, the club hopes its supporters will continue actively signing the Platform’s manifesto and that Mayor Alfredo Castelló will be aware of the historic responsibility he has been given for the future of the Puerto Sagunto Handball sporting organisation. History will certainly remember him in this respect; the question is whether as the man who secured an economic rescue or not.