Former Premier League chief now owns ‘Spanish Accrington Stanley’ with 6,000-capacity stadium
FORMER Burnley chief Mike Garlick has swapped Lancashire for Andalusia to become owner of Spanish third tier side Antequera.
After stepping down from his role at Turf Moor in 2020 following ALK Capital’s takeover, the businessman set his sights on a new challenge.
And when the opportunity arose to become Antequera boss at the start of this year, he grabbed it with both hands.
“I didn’t want to buy a big club,” he told The Times.
“The most enjoyable thing about Burnley wasn’t the day you won something or got promotion but the actual journey — and I wanted a journey.
“I looked at Antequera and thought, ‘We could go on a journey here.’
“I knew I’d miss the buzz of football and I got offered a lot of different clubs in England but I’m a Burnley fan so I wasn’t that keen.
“We already had a house in Spain, near Marbella, and my wife speaks Spanish so why not here? I can get on a plane to Malaga, jump in a car and be here really quickly.
“On top of that, they’d been promoted in three of the past five years so they are clearly on an upward trend.”
Antequera currently sit second in Primera Federación Group 2 – only behind Betis Deportivo Balompie, the reserve team of Real Betis.
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If they win the group, the Spanish side will earn promotion to the second tier.
Otherwise, they may have to do so via the play-offs at the end of the campaign.
Garlick has ambitions of leading the team all the way up to LaLiga.
If Antequera achieve the feat, they would represent one of the smallest towns in the division.
The 61-year-old continued: “I’ve compared it to Accrington as the population’s just over 40,000 so if we did get into La Liga one day, we’d be one of the smallest-ever towns in there.
“Burnley was the smallest town in the Premier League — you’ve got 78,000 people there. It’s a dream but why not try for it?”
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