Elche President Juan Anguix fears the club may struggle to stay in the Segunda after they were relegated from the top flight for non-football reasons.
Despite recording a 12th-place finish, Elche were sent down by a judge after failing to pay their taxes, with Eibar granted a reprieve.
Anguix has told Cadena Ser that the situation isn’t fair on the club as they are trying to deal with the legacy left by the former administration, and confirmed legal action could be taken against the previous board.
“If we’d paid everything we wouldn’t be where we are. When we took over we knew it was bad, but it’s actually worse,” Anguix, who became President in late April, said, AS reports.
“It’s worse than I feared. The debt to the Treasury was almost double. The tax office didn’t know Elche so we had to explain our problems.
“There have been very unpleasant surprises. Elche have been robbed. It’s in the hands of the judge. The Treasury don’t accept our way of paying. I’m trying to fix this.
“Elche have already been punished. We weren’t allowed to sign anyone and started the season with 17 players. We weren’t able to sign anyone in the winter.
“It’s the first time a club has been relegated like this in one of the big Leagues. Elche needed to pay urgently to avoid it. We presented a timetable to the LFP and they didn’t accept it.
“I’m in Madrid now to go to the Treasury tomorrow to fix the small problems in the documents we submitted. I’m very calm. The League has done things but could have done more. It’s an emergency and we needed more help.
“It will be difficult for Elche to stay in the Segunda. We’ll exploit every avenue and go to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. We believe in justice. The League has sent a team down to the Segunda despite what was earned on the pitch. It punishes the club rather than the directors.”
