La Liga side Valencia President Amadeo Salvo has criticized the club's lender, Spanish bank Bankia, "saying a football club is not a 'chorizo business,'" according to Dermot Corrigan of ESPN. Bankia and accounting firm KPMG have "reportedly already discarded the public offer made by Peter Lim as the Singapore businessman did not follow the requested procedures." Salvo and Valencia majority shareholder VCF Foundation President Aurelio Martinez are "upset at not being included in the sale process," but Bankia feels it can "make a unilateral decision as the football club have long stopped making repayments" on a €300M-plus loan. No "details of the other bidders have been made public," but Spanish newspaper El Mundo reported that U.S. investment fund Texas Pacific Group, Qatari investment fund QIA and a "group called 'Always Valencia' headed by former player Fernando Gomez Colomer are still in the running" (ESPN, 1/27). In Madrid, Conrado Valle reported Salvo "wants VCF to lead the process." Salvo "explained that he wants to defend what is best for the club." Salvo promised "not to give a single document to any person club executives do not know for the club's financial situation to be examined." Salvo: "Valencia is a 'feeling' that you cannot sell like a chorizo business. From now on, it is us who are in charge of this sale, not Bankia" (AS, 1/24).
