José Luis Astiazarán Iriondo (born 31 October 1963) is a Spanish

lawyer A lawyer is a person who is qualified to offer advice about the law, draft legal documents, or represent individuals in legal matters. The exact nature of a lawyer's work varies depending on the legal jurisdiction and the legal system, as w ...

specializing in

sport Sport is a physical activity or game, often Competition, competitive and organization, organized, that maintains or improves physical ability and skills. Sport may provide enjoyment to participants and entertainment to spectators. The numbe ...

and commercial and civil law, and between 2005 and 2013 president of

Liga Nacional de Fútbol Profesional Liga (Spanish and Portuguese: ''League'') or LIGA may refer to: Sports Basketball * Liga ACB, men's professional basketball league in Spain * Liga Femenina de Baloncesto, women's professional basketball league in Spain Football Latin Amer ...

Football career

Astiazarán was born in

Mexico City Mexico City is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Mexico, largest city of Mexico, as well as the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North America. It is one of the most important cultural and finan ...

, Mexico to a Spanish couple of

Basque Basque may refer to: * Basques, an ethnic group of Spain and France * Basque language, their language Places * Basque Country (greater region), the homeland of the Basque people with parts in both Spain and France * Basque Country (autonomous co ...

descent, returning to his parents' region of birth shortly after. A

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People *Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Smal ...

, he graduated from

Real Sociedad Real Sociedad de Fútbol, more commonly referred to as Real Sociedad ( ; ''Royal Society'') in English, and Erreala or Reala in Basque language, Basque, is a Spanish professional sports club in the city of San Sebastián, Donostia / San Sebastián, ...

youth academy In sporting terminology, a youth system (or youth academy) is a youth investment program within a particular team or league, which develops and nurtures young talent in farm teams, with the vision of using them in the first team if they show en ...

but only represented its reserves as a senior, the same happening at his following team,

Athletic Bilbao Athletic Club (; ), commonly known as Athletic Bilbao (), or simply Athletic, is a professional Football club (association football), football club based in the city of Bilbao in the Southern Basque Country, Basque Country, Spain. They are known ...

. Astiazarán played professionally for

Sestao Sport Club Sestao Sport Club was a Spanish football club based in Sestao, in the autonomous community of Basque Country. Founded it 1916 it held home matches at ''Campo Municipal de las Llanas'', with a capacity of 8,900 seats. History Sestao managed to ...

– also in his native region – and

Bilbao Athletic Athletic Club "B", officially Bilbao Athletic, is the reserve team of Athletic Club, a football club based in Bilbao, in the autonomous community of Basque Country in Spain. The team currently compete in the . Founded in 1964, the team holds ho ...

, appearing in a total of 43

Segunda División The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Segunda División, commonly known as Segunda División or La Liga 2, and officially known as LaLiga HyperMotion for sponsorship reasons, is the men's second professional association football division of the Spa ...

matches during his short career (four goals). In 1992 he returned to his first club, working with its board of directors until 2001.

Law career

While still working with Real Sociedad as a director, Astiazarán also acted as legal adviser for athletes, companies and institutions in the sports sector. He became president of the club on 22 March 2001 and left the position in 2005, leaving the club in a poor sporting and economic situation –

€ The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists of a stylized letter E (or epsilon), crossed by t ...

10 million worth of debt. On 15 July 2005, Astiazarán was appointed president of the

Liga de Fútbol Profesional Liga (Spanish and Portuguese: ''League'') or LIGA may refer to: Sports Basketball * Liga ACB, men's professional basketball league in Spain * Liga Femenina de Baloncesto, women's professional basketball league in Spain Football Latin Amer ...

(Professional Football League), the body governing both

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known as the Primera División or La Liga, and officially known as LaLiga EA Sports for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Spain and the highest ...

and the second division. Having earlier served as

vice president A vice president or vice-president, also director in British English, is an officer in government or business who is below the president (chief executive officer) in rank. It can also refer to executive vice presidents, signifying that the vi ...

and member of the board of directors in the organization, he won the election unanimously, with all but three clubs – Real Sociedad,

SD Eibar Sociedad Deportiva Eibar (in ) is a Spanish football league teams, Spanish professional football club based in Eibar, Gipuzkoa, in the autonomous Basque Country (autonomous community), Basque Country. Founded on 30 November 1940, the men’s te ...

and

CA Osasuna Club Atlético Osasuna (, ''Osasuna Athletic Club''), or simply Osasuna, is a Spanish professional football club based in Pamplona, Navarre. It was founded on 24 October 1920 and plays in La Liga, the top division of Spanish football. The team's ...

– showing him support; he was re-elected in April 2009 for another period of four years, and in 2013 Javier Tebas took over as president after he did not present himself for reelection. Astiazarán was a member of the

European Professional Football Leagues European Leagues (EL) is a sports organisation within association football created for growth of professional football in Europe. Its members are the professional football leagues organisations of 31 countries: Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Bu ...

board of directors, and a member of the

FIFA The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (), more commonly known by its acronym FIFA ( ), is the international self-regulatory governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal. It was founded on 21 May 1904 to o ...

Player's Status Committee sub-committee which verified the transfers of minor players. In mid-May 2009, he claimed the

6+5 rule 6 (six) is the natural number following 5 and preceding 7. It is a composite number and the smallest perfect number. In mathematics A six-sided polygon is a hexagon, one of the three regular polygons capable of tiling the plane. A hexagon a ...

would not have a negative impact on Spanish football.

References

External links

* *
Liga de Fútbol Profesional website

El País profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Astiazaran, Jose Luis 1963 births Living people Sportspeople from Mexico City Mexican people of Basque descent Spanish men's footballers Footballers from the Basque Country (autonomous community) Men's association football forwards Segunda División players Segunda División B players Tercera División players Real Sociedad B footballers Athletic Bilbao B footballers Barakaldo CF footballers Sestao Sport Club footballers UEFA officials 20th-century Spanish sportsmen