José Luis Astiazarán Iriondo (born 31 October 1963) is a Spanish
lawyer
A lawyer is a person who practices law. The role of a lawyer varies greatly across different legal jurisdictions. A lawyer can be classified as an advocate, attorney, barrister, canon lawyer, civil law notary, counsel, counselor, solic ...
specializing in
sport and commercial and civil law, and between 2005 and 2013 president of
Liga Nacional de Fútbol Profesional.
Football career
Astiazarán was born in
Mexico City, Mexico to a Spanish couple of
Basque descent, returning to his parents' region of birth shortly after. A
forward, he graduated from
Real Sociedad
Real Sociedad de Fútbol, S.A.D., more commonly referred to as Real Sociedad (; ''Royal Society''), La Real in Spanish, Erreala in Basque, is a Spanish professional sports club in the city of San Sebastián, Basque Country, founded on 7 Septem ...
's
youth academy but only represented
its reserves as a senior, the same happening at his following team,
Athletic Bilbao
Athletic Club ( eu, Bilboko Athletic Kluba; es, Athletic Club de Bilbao), commonly known as Athletic Bilbao or just Athletic, is a professional Association football, football club based in the city of Bilbao in the Basque Country (autonomous com ...
.
Astiazarán played professionally for
Sestao Sport Club– also in his native region – and
Bilbao Athletic, appearing in a total of 43
Segunda División
The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Segunda División, commercially known as LaLiga SmartBank for sponsorship reasons, is the men's second professional association football division of the Spanish football league system. Administrated by the Lig ...
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 –
€10 million worth of debt.
On 15 July 2005, Astiazarán was appointed president of the
Liga de Fútbol Profesional (Professional Football League), the body governing both
La Liga and the second division. Having earlier served as
vice president and member of the board of directors in the organization, he won the election unanimously, with all but three clubs – Real Sociedad,
SD Eibar and
CA Osasuna – 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 board of directors, and a member of the
FIFA
FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' ( French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was found ...
Player's Status Committee sub-committee which verified the transfers of minor players. In mid-May 2009, he claimed the
6+5 rule would not have a negative impact on Spanish football.
References
External links
*
*
Liga de Fútbol Profesional websiteEl País profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Astiazaran, Jose Luis
1963 births
Living people
People from Mexico City
Mexican people of Basque descent
Spanish footballers
Footballers from the Basque Country (autonomous community)
Association football forwards
Segunda División players
Segunda División B players
Tercera División players
Real Sociedad B footballers
Bilbao Athletic footballers
Barakaldo CF footballers
Sestao Sport Club footballers
UEFA officials