Deportivo Cali: the institutional decision that may be definitive for its future

Deportivo Cali is experiencing the most difficult institutional moment in its history. Loaded with debt and with enormous sporting problems, the club continues to look for formulas for its salvation.

An extraordinary meeting of members was held this Sunday, after the first meeting, scheduled for Saturday, was postponed due to lack of quorum. And in it a fundamental decision was made to save the club.

Cali took, with the approval of 345 of the 356 partners who were present at the Alex Gorayeb headquarters, the first step towards conversion into a public limited company.

This is the inclusion of the club in insolvency law, something that had already been announced by the club in July of this year.

Deportivo Cali vs. Millionaires

“Due to the official letter sent by the Cali Chamber of Commerce dated today, July 21, 2023, through which it notifies the beginning of the business recovery procedure, which will have the effects contemplated in article 17 of the Law 1116 of 2006, in accordance with the provisions of article 9 of Legislative Decree 560 of 2020. From this moment, the negotiation of the obligations that the Asociación Deportivo Cali has with its creditors formally begins. The club then explained in a statement.

Deportivo Cali’s debts

In this way, they seek to find formulas to cover the enormous debts that the club has, a situation that was explained by the new president of the entity, Guido Jaramillo.

“The institution’s liabilities are 104 billion pesos and with the cash flow we have it will not be possible to pay it. The public limited company is the lifeline. It would bring many benefits,” Jaramillo told the newspaper El País.

With this formula, Cali will be able to renegotiate the obligations it has to cover them with a peremptory deadline and thus be able to have cash flow for its normal operation.

Guido Jaramillo, president of Deportivo Cali.

The assembly authorized President Jaramillo to begin studies that would lead Deportivo Cali to change its social structure. It should be remembered that today it is the only club that is not a public limited company in Colombian soccer and they want to reach that point to, among other things, allow the entry of new investors.

“If an investor arrives, we could compete with a much better payroll in the League. In Colombia we have the examples: América itself, Nacional, Millonarios and Santa Fe”, said the president of Cali.

The club has had two very complicated years in sports, as a consequence of its institutional crisis, and although this year it is almost saved from relegation, the accumulated results of recent years put it in serious problems for 2024.

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