SD Eibar Foundation adopts a budget of €900,000 for the season
The Foundation's General Assembly took place today at Ipurua
Today, Thursday 17 November, saw the SD Eibar Foundation stage its General Assembly at the club's Training Centre, in which a budget of €900,000 was approved for the 2016/17 season.
The Foundation encompasses the 11 teams that make up the club's youth set-up, as well as the Women's first team and the Football School, with a total of over 400 players undertaking sporting activities and receiving human education with us.
The SD Eibar Foundation is also responsible for the club's corporate social responsibility programme, which sees the organisation participate in a wide range of charitable causes through its own campaigns and in partnership with various institutions, associations and NGOs.
The Ipurua Training Centre, which is managed by the Foundation, represents the flagship in the efforts to prove to the world that an alternative, socially-focused, values-based footballing model that's close to the people is possible. The Foundation lays on sports training through the Guipuzcoan Football Federation and higher education training with the University of the Basque County, as well as courses in robotics for children and youngsters through our sponsor Wiko.
At the beginning of the 2016/17 season, the Foundation's board exceptionally approved a series of grants to fund Eibar's sports clubs, contributing up to €100,000, an amount which is set to be allocated in line with the Eibar City Council's annual barameter for its own grants.
In her opening address, delivered to around 30 members, the Foundation's patroness and president of SD Eibar and president of the Foundation's board, Amaia Gorostiza, underlined that since assuming the presidency of the club last May "one of the main objectives that I set was to promote the Foundation as a tool with which to pay the community of Eibar back for a small part of the great amount it has given us during the 76 years since our inception".
She went on to comment that "transparency" is one of the club's "fundamental values", which is why the decision was made to call an open meeting to share information on the Foundation's finances and activities.
"Over the course of the years, we have organised a great number of activities through the Foundation, all of which have aimed to be beneficial to our community, starting with Eibar's sports clubs, followed by the NGOs and local associations, without forgetting our veterans, who we have recently included within the club's structure, giving them the same status as the rest of our teams".
Gorostiza described the Ipurua Training Centre as a "unique case in La Liga" and referred to the co-working space company, Enpresagunea, as providing the club with an opportunity to "make the most of the spaces generated" as a result of the expansion of the stadium, before revealing that the Ipurua Tour and club museum are projects which are set to be rolled out in the near future with a view to "incorporating the club within the tourism strategy for Eibar and the region".