Al-Thani committed to Malaga

Malaga vice-president Moayad Shatat insists Sheikh Abdullah Al-Thani remains fully committed to the club’s cause.

The Spanish outfit were purchased by the Qatari billionaire two years ago, and an investment of over 100 million euros to wipe out the side’s debts and build a squad capable of challenging for La Liga soon followed.

However, a need to fall in line with UEFA’s Financial Fair Play, coupled with reports that Al-Thani wanted to sell the club, preceded the sales of Santi Cazorla and Jose Rondon.

Speaking at the unveiling of a new directorial team on Wednesday, Shatat, who has been at the club since July, believes the foundations are now in place for Malaga to prosper in the future.

“At no moment have we said we were going to leave the club,” Shatat said. “We began this project, we have invested a lot of money in it and we have no intention of stopping.

“We will keep the project going and we want the best for this club. We want to invest but we want to do it at the right point. The sheikh has always been interested in Malaga and the club is not for sale.

“I have been sent here to put in place a new working model for the club. Do not worry that we may or may not invest money. We want what is best for the club, and to do things the best way possible for Malaga.

“They (the owners of the club) have been quite unhappy, actually disgruntled, but I cannot explain their reasons for this in public.

“They will continue supporting the club and remain connected with it. They follow everything closely from Qatar and we will all keep working to fix any situation which might arise.”

Nonetheless, the club qualified for the group stage of the Champions League following a play-off victory over Panathinaikos, and swooped to sign Javier Saviola, Roque Santa Cruz, Oguchi Onyewu and Manuel Iturra on transfer deadline day.

Elsewhere, Nacho Monreal has been linked with a move to Athletic Bilbao, who under Spanish regulations have another month to spend the 40 million euros received for Javi Martinez, but Shatat has no intention to sell the left-back.

“We have sorted out the debts,” he said. “At that moment, the best decision for the club was taken.

“We must work more on raising revenues, but not through selling players. Monreal? That situation has passed, we are calm and we do not need to sell.

“We were looking at the possibility of bringing players in, not selling more.”