In his fifth month as the Mexican basketball coach, Omar Quintero already had the support of veteran players and he still needed to put an end to the eternal financial problems, for which he turned to the Venezuelan businessman Carlos Lazo, one of the keys for Mexico to return to the World Cup.
Lazo’s first task was to contribute part of the money with which Mexico competed in June and July 2021 in the Croatian Pre-Olympicwhere he failed in his quest to go to Tokyo 2020.
Despite the failure, the businessman, Quintero’s boss in the Libertadores de Querétaro, did not withdraw the support and even financed one hundred percent of what Mexico needed in the qualifiers for the 2023 World Cupthrough a sponsorship of their companies.
In total, Lazo revealed that he contributed more than 600,000 dollars in the six World Cup qualifying windows, with which the 1,600 dollars that each player received per game, Quintero’s salary and logistical expenses such as hotels and plane tickets were paid.
Not even the previous time they attended the fair, in Spain 2014, did they have this support and even the lack of it caused the untimely departure of the then coach, the Spanish Sergio Valdeolmillos, who accused that he was owed salary and he was never notified of his dismissal, examples of the problems that the Mexican Basketball Federation has experienced.
“People do not realize what is done behind the scenes, the trips, the hotels, the meals, things that we struggled with many years before and now everything has changed,” explained Gabriel Giron Jr.
“We never had everything that is happening today. The players are happy, comfortable, they want to come and that has been key to achieving results”, expressed Quintero.
At the same time, the Federation found internal order after being suspended by FIBA from February 2020 to May 2021 for administrative irregularities and trusted Quintero’s project, who has a contract until 2027.
For now, Lazo affirmed that his sponsorship of the team will continue until after the World Cup. and is in talks to extend it in the search for qualification for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
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