Jeff Luhnow becomes the new owner of Cancun Football Club

The president and current owner of Cancún FC, José Luis Orantes Contanzo confirmed the sale of the franchise to a group of businessmen headed by Jeff Luhnow and said that the transaction will be made official in May at the owners' meeting of the Liga Expansión MX. In an exclusive interview with Por Esto!, Orantes Constanzo said that the franchise is in the process of being sold and hopes that from now until May everything will go as expected to make the change of ownership official at the league's owners' meeting.

"We are in that process. But everything would be made official until May. It would be a sale to a group of businessmen headed by Jeff Luhnow," said José Luis Orantes, who headed the club's move to the Caribbean two years ago. He explained that the change of ownership process implies that for the moment both parties are operating the team together before the league, and it is even mentioned that the new owners have appointed a vice-president to become involved in the institution's activities.

The new owner attached to the operation of the team is the Italian lawyer Giovanni Solazzi, 28 years old, who according to the Italian American Bar Association in Los Angeles, California, is a professor in sports law. "Nothing, we are in this process, operating together, and that everything goes well between now and May until the owners' meeting," he reiterated.

José Luis Orante pointed out that talking about the amount of the sale of the franchise is complicated since several details of the transaction have yet to be fine-tuned, although according to the specialized market value forum Transfermarkt, the charter has a current cost of 6.75 million Euros, that is, around 157 million 353 thousand pesos. "Talking about the amount of the sale, that is complicated, because of many details that are still to be resolved," he referred. Although it is known that the Orantes family ceded the franchise to an American investment fund led by Jeff Luhnow, who six months ago showed interest in acquiring Atlético de San Luis.

Cancún FC has a roster of 39 players with an average age of 24.6 years, six of whom are foreigners, which means that foreign players represent 15.4% of the total roster.  Orantes Constanzo commented that the family made the difficult decision to sell the franchise at a complicated time, but "that's the way it is in soccer. It was a very interested group and we decided to sell," he said.

The history of the franchise in Mexican soccer is short, since six years ago the Orantes family, headed by José Luis, acquired Altamira's charter from Enrique de Hita Yibale, who passed away almost a year ago. At that time, the family took the franchise to play in Tapachula, Chiapas, and almost two years ago moved to the Mexican Caribbean after the departure of Potros de Hierro from Atlante FC in this city.