Ruiz de Lopera sells Betis after 18 years in control

Jul 7, 2010, 12:12 GMT

Madrid - Manuel Ruiz de Lopera announced on Wednesday that he has finally managed to sell Spanish second division club Real Betis, to a consortium headed by businessman Luis Oliver.

The colourful and controversial Ruiz de Lopera, 65, had been owner and president of the Seville club since 1992.

Initially, he put a lot of his own money into the club and made expensive signings such as that of Brazilian winger Denilson in 2007, the world's most expensive player at the time.

In recent years, however, he drastically reduced his investment in the club, partly because of problems with Spanish tax officials. This made him very unpopular with the Betis fans, who have been demanding that he sell the club for the past three years.

Under Ruiz de Lopera Betis suffered two relegations from La Liga, but in 2005 they won the King's Cup and also qualified for the Champions League.

They were relegated for a second time in 2009 and narrowly missed out on promotion back to the first division in June.

Nonetheless, Oliver has made it clear that coach Victor Fernandez will continue on the Betis bench next season.

It is not clear whether Betis' stadium - which was used in the 1982 World Cup finals - will continue to carry the name of Ruiz de Lopera.