Paco Casal (born Francisco Casal) is a Uruguayan
entrepreneur
Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value. With this definition, entrepreneurship is viewed as change, generally entailing risk beyond what is normally encountered in starting a business, which may include other values t ...
.
Emerged as a
football agent
Agent may refer to:
Espionage, investigation, and law
*, spies or intelligence officers
* Law of agency, laws involving a person authorized to act on behalf of another
** Agent of record, a person with a contractual agreement with an insuranc ...
, Casal quickly acquired total relevance in the market of his country. He owns the company
Tenfield
Tenfield is a broadcasting corporation which holds the commercial rights to broadcast the Uruguayan football and basketball. It was founded in 1998 by the Uruguayan business-men Francisco "Paco" Casal, and the former football players Enzo Franc ...
, and the television channel
GolTV.
History
Born in
São Paulo
São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for ' Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the Ga ...
, with only seven months of age, Casal moved to
Montevideo with his family. He was
ball boy
Ball boys and ball girls, also known as ball kids are individuals, usually human youths but sometimes dogs, who retrieve and supply balls for players or officials in sports such as association football, American football, bandy, cricket, tenn ...
of the
Estadio Centenario
Estadio Centenario is a stadium in the Parque Batlle of Montevideo, Uruguay, used primarily for football. The stadium was built between 1929 and 1930 to host the inaugural 1930 FIFA World Cup, as well as to commemorate the centenary of Ur ...
and according to his own rating, a "mediocre"
footballer
A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...
, who in 1968 joined the training divisions of the
Defensor Sporting
Defensor Sporting Club is a sports club based in Montevideo, Uruguay. Founded in 1913, Defensor has several sports sections, with football and basketball being the most important and the ones in which the club has achieved significant achievem ...
, at the age of 19 he was transferred to
Atlético Madrid and later transferred to
Racing de Santander
Real Racing Club de Santander, S.A.D. (), also known as Racing de Santander () or simply Racing, is a football club based in Santander, Cantabria, Spain, that currently competes in Segunda División, the second tier of the Spanish league syst ...
.
Representative of footballers
In 1980, while still a player of Vasco, Casal was wounded, and at the same time he received the opportunity that would change his life: his friend (footballer)
Juan Ramon Carrasco asks to be represented by him in a negotiation. He would start a successful career as a representative of players. In the end of the 1980s he was the representative of the best players in the country (among them,
Carlos Aguilera,
Ruben Sosa,
Enzo Francescoli
Enzo Francescoli Uriarte (; born 12 November 1961), nicknamed "El Príncipe" ("The Prince"), is a Uruguayan former footballer who played as a attacking midfielder. He is regarded as one of the best playmakers of his generation and as one of ...
,
Hugo De Leon and
Nelson Gutierrez). In the 1990s, Casal had almost a monopoly of representation of Uruguayan players, since "everybody wanted to be represented by Paco".
The owner of the Uruguayan football
Casal is considered the greatest businessman of Uruguay. A former football player, he built his power as an agent of some players of the
Uruguay national football team
The Uruguay national football team ( es, Selección de fútbol de Uruguay) represents Uruguay in international football, and is controlled by the Uruguayan Football Association, the governing body for football in Uruguay. The Uruguayan team i ...
, and started expanding his business. In the 1990s, his power was such that he became virtually the owner of football in that country, having the bond with the main players in the country and being the owner of Tenfield, the company that opened with
Enzo Francescoli
Enzo Francescoli Uriarte (; born 12 November 1961), nicknamed "El Príncipe" ("The Prince"), is a Uruguayan former footballer who played as a attacking midfielder. He is regarded as one of the best playmakers of his generation and as one of ...
and
Nelson Gutiérrez (two of his former athletes) and which has the broadcasting rights of the
Uruguayan Championship
Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...
.
Television entrepreneur
In the middle of the 2000s, Casal announced that he would gradually leave the representation of players to focus fully on his television projects:
Tenfield
Tenfield is a broadcasting corporation which holds the commercial rights to broadcast the Uruguayan football and basketball. It was founded in 1998 by the Uruguayan business-men Francisco "Paco" Casal, and the former football players Enzo Franc ...
, and especially to
GolTV, a channel based in
Miami
Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at ...
to be broadcast to all
Latin America
Latin America or
* french: Amérique Latine, link=no
* ht, Amerik Latin, link=no
* pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived f ...
. The world of the representation of footballers in Uruguay was now open for new entrepreneurs.
Nowadays, the power of Casal attempts to cross borders as he tried entering the
Argentine football where struck against the figure of
Julio Grondona
Julio Humberto Grondona (September 18, 1931 – July 30, 2014) was an Argentine football executive. He served as president of the Argentine Football Association (''Asociación del Fútbol Argentino'') from 1979 until his death in 2014. He also se ...
. However, in 2011, he managed to get the rights of the international tournament organized by
Conmebol, which Grondona has much interference.
Casal is also trying to spread his business to other countries such as
Peru
, image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg
, image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg
, other_symbol = Great Seal of the State
, other_symbol_type = National seal
, national_motto = "Firm and Happy f ...
, where he tries to close a deal for the television rights of at least 6 of the more representative clubs of Peru, such as
Universitario de Deportes
Club Universitario de Deportes, popularly known as Universitario or simply as La "U", is a Peruvian football club located in Lima. The club was founded in 1924 under the name Federación Universitaria by students of the National University of S ...
,
Alianza Lima,
Sporting Cristal,
Sport Boys
Sport Boys Association, commonly referred to as Sport Boys or simply Boys, is a Peruvian football club based in the port city of Callao. It was founded on 28 July 1927. Its classic and historic rival is the Atlético Chalaco against whom dispute ...
,
FBC Melgar
Foot Ball Club Melgar, known simply as FBC Melgar or Melgar, is a Peruvian football club based in Arequipa, Peru. It is one of Peru's oldest football teams, founded on 25 March 1915 by a group of football enthusiasts from Arequipa.
The team fir ...
, among others.
Magnate de Gol TV en exclusiva para El Comercio: “Los clubes vinieron a mí” , El Comercio Perú
/ref>
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Casal, Paco
1954 births
Living people
Businesspeople from São Paulo
Uruguayan businesspeople
Defensor Sporting players
Racing de Santander players
CR Vasco da Gama players
Men's association football players not categorized by position
Uruguayan men's footballers